Full text of "The Dial"

THE DIAL 



Semi-Monthly Journal of 



Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information 




VOLUME XVIII. 



JANUARY i TO JUNE 16, 1895. 



CHICAGO: 

THE DIAL COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
1895 



INDEX TO VOLUME XVIII. 



AMERICAN PEOPLK, STORY OF Francis W. Shepardson .... 319 

ARISTOTLE, ART CRITICISM OF Edward E. Hale, Jr 298 

ART IN PRIMITIVE GREECE John C. Van Dyke 142 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY, A PSYCHOLOGICAL 205 

BACONIAN AUTHORSHIP OF THE PLAYS L. W. Bishop 242 

BARRAS'S MEMOIRS 338 

BOOTH, EDWIN, LETTERS OF Elwyn A. Barron 17 

CHAUCER, SKEAT'S EDITION OF Ewald Flilgel 116 

CHICAGO'S OTHER HALF Max West 239 

CHURCH, DEAN, LIFE OF C. A. L. Richards 176 

CIVIL WAR, ROPES'S HISTORY OF THE C. H. Cooper 48 

COLERIDGE LETTERS, NEW 316 

COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE, THE .... Benjamin S. Terry 234 

CRITICISM, TOUCHSTONES OF 335 

DIALECT, USE AND ABUSE OF 67 

DRAMA, TECHNIQUE OF John S. Nollen 77 

DUSK OF THE NATIONS, THE Edward E. Hale, Jr 236 

EDUCATION, ELEMENTARY, REPORT ON 167 

EDUCATION, RECENT BOOKS ON B. A. Hinsdale 113 

EDUCATIONAL VALUES 229 

ELECTRIC ACTION, MODERN THEORIES OF .... Henry S. Carhart 79 

ELIZABETHANS, REVIVAL OF Frederic Ives Carpenter .... 297 

ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY, A NEW TREATMENT OF William Morton Payne 320 

ENGLISH NATURALISTS, LIVES OF Two Sara A. Hubbard 171 

ERASMUS, FROUDE'S C. A. L. Richards 73 

FAR EASTERN PICTURES AND PROBLEMS . 264 

FICTION, RECENT William Morton Payne .... 50, 270 

FREYTAG, GUSTAV 287 

HENRY OF NAVARRE W. H. Carruth 144 

HISTORY AND RELIGION John Bascom 212 

HISTORY, AN UNSUCCESSFUL A. C. McLaughlin Ill 

IBSEN LEGEND, THE 259 

IBSEN'S " LILLE EYOLF " William Morton Payne 5 

JAPAN, NEW, STUDIES OF Edmund Buckley 241 

JAPAN, WAY OF THE GODS IN Ernest W. Clement ...... 45 

JOURNALIST, CONFESSIONS OF A 106 

LABOR PROBLEMS, DISCUSSIONS OF Edward W. Bemis 342 

LAFAYETTE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION D. L. Shorey 208 

LANIER, SIDNEY, APPRECIATIONS OF W. M . Baskervill 299 

LATIN POETRY, PROF. TYRRELL ON W. H. Johnson 267 

LITERARY LONDON, MORE MEMOIRS OF 8 

LITERATURE AS A UNIVERSITY STUDY Edward E. Hale, Jr 109 

LONDON THEATRES, EARLY G. M. Hyde 47 

MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS 43 

MlRABEAU AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION . . . . D. L. Shorey 10 

MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA *. Alice Morse Earle 75 

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT, STUDIES IN Harry Pratt Judson 147 

NAMES, A DICTIONARY OF . . Melville B. Anderson .... 344 



IV. 



INDEX. 



NEGRO IN FICTION, FUTURE OF Lavinia If. Egan 70 

NEW ENGLAND NUN, A Louis J. Block 146 

NOVELS AND NOVEL READERS Richard Burton 39 

OHIO, PIONEER LIFE IN William Henry Smith 243 

ORIENT, TRAVELS IN THE Alice Morse Earle 210 

PHILOSOPHIC RENASCENCE IN AMERICA John Dewey 80 

POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS, RECENT Harry Pratt Judson 20 

POE, RENASCENCE OF D. L. Maulsby 138 

POETRY AS CRITICISM OF LITERATURE 133 

POETRY, RECENT AMERICAN William Morton Payne 82 

POETRY, RECENT ENGLISH William Morton Payne 150 

POETRY, THE ANTENNAE IN Edward E. Hale, Jr 174 

PRESIDENTS, LIVES OF THE Charles W. French 269 

PSYCHOLOGY, SIDE PATHS OF E. B. Titchener 324 

READING AND EDUCATION 101 

REALISM, ALLOTROPY OF George Merriam Hyde 231 

ROSSETTI, CHRISTINA G 37 

SCIENCE, POPULAR, CHAPTERS OF A. E. Dolbear 176 

SEAMEN, ENGLISH, IN THE XVI. CENTURY . . . . W. H. Carruth 341 

SHAKESPEARE, A NEW BOOK ON Edward E. Hale, Jr 13 

SOCIAL PROGRESS IN ENGLAND Arthur B. Woodford 15 

SOCIAL SUBJECTS, RECENT BOOKS ON C. R. Henderson 177 

SOPHOCLES TO IBSEN, FROM 203 

SPECTRAL PUBLISHER, THE John Albee 261 

STEVENSON, ROBERT Louis 3 

SUMMER SCHOOL, THE 313 

TlLDEN, BlGELOW's LlFE OF 291 

TRANSLATION, NEGLECTED ART OF 201 

UNIVERSITIES, GREAT, STUDIES OF B. A. Hinsdale 294 

WOMAN'S PART IN DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE . Merton L. Miller . 323 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 

American Authors' Guild, The. Craven L. Belts 232 
" American Authors' " English. G. L. C. . . 263 
Authors' Guild, The Utility of an. A Western 

Author 263 

"Axe" and "Spunky" in Dialect. Henry M. 

Bowden 136 

Browning's Optimism, So-Called. W. N. G. . 290 
Classical Conference at Ann Arbor, The. Josiah 

R. Smith 248 

College Standing in Iowa. /. H. T. Main . . 1 03 
Dialect Dictionary, An English. Benj. Ide Wheeler 105 
Dialect in the United States. Alexander L. Bon- 

durant 104 

Dialect Study in America. E. W. Hopkins . . 136 
English Literature in American Libraries. F. I. 

Carpenter 7 

English Literature Teaching, A Suggestion on. 

Hiram M. Stanley 233 

Greek Drama at Washburn College. Bertha E. 

Lovewell 233 

Greek Lyric Poetry, The Antiquity of. William 

Cranston Lawton . . . . ' 315 

Humanities, The, and College Education. M. 

Brass Thomas 135 



27, 59, 91, 124, 157, 185, 219 

" Herr " Bjornson. Albert E. Egge .... 104 
Humanities, The, and the Sciences. Frederic L. 

Luqueer 169 

Lafayette and Mirabeau. D. L. Shorey ... 71 
Lafayette and Mirabeau, Once More. H. von 

Hoist 136 

Leipzig, University Life at. Ellen C. Hinsdale . 220 

Libraries, Departmental. Aksel G. S. Josephson 42 
"Literary Study, The Aims of." Oscar Lovell 

Triggs 203 

" Mirabeau and the French Revolution." H. von 

Hoist 41 

" Missionary Question " in China, The. William 

Harper .' 289 

" Nonsense Verses " in the Schoolroom. Dinah 

Sturgis 72 

Poet Too Little Known, A. Mary J. Reid . . 104 

Rome and Chicago. Samuel Willard . . . . 170 
Science in Education, The Claims of. Henry S. 

Carhart 262 

Shakespearian Plays at Chicago Theatres. W. M. P. 337 

Translator, A Murderous. Herman S. Piatt . . 72 
Unknown Tongues, The Perilous Use of. W. H. 

Johnson 7 



INDEX. 



v. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Americanisms, Dr. Fitzedward Hall on ... 
" Barbara Freitchie," a Letter from Whittier on 

Blackie, Prof. J. S., Death of 

Canfield, James H., President Ohio University . 

Columbia, Dr. Low's Gift to 

Copyright Bill, Covert Amendment to the 

Crerar Library, The 

Dana, James D wight 

English and American College Students . 

Gayarre", Charles E. A 

Grolier Club's Exhibition of Bookbindings 

Hake, Dr. Thomas G., Death of 

January. Poem by John Vance Cheney . 

Lord, Dr. John, Death of 

Martineau, James, Ninetieth Birthday of ... 
" Nonsense Verses " in Public Schools .... 

" (Edipus Rex " at Beloit College 

ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SPRING BOOKS, 1895 . . 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS jB 

BRIEFER MENTION 'aS 

LITERARY NOTES afflj 

TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS .... ,J|i 
LISTS OF NEW BOOKS . 



249 Oxford School of English Literature, " Saturday 

28 Review "on 28 

186 Perkins, Professor W. R., Death of 92 

305 " Poor Richard's Almanac," Facsimile Edition of 60 

289 Rawlinson, Sir Henry, Death of 186 

158 Rossetti, Christina, The Passing of. Poem by 

221 Katharine Lee Bates 135 

261 Rossetti, Miss, Tributes to 69 

61 Seeley, Sir J. R., Death of 125 

126 Sonnet by Richard Garnett on Four Dead Authors 158 

125 Stevenson, R. L., Extracts from Two Letters on 61 

92 Summer, A Winter Dream of. Poem by O. C. 

6 Auriuger 158 

28 The Garden Where No Winter Is. Poem by 

305 Louis J. Block 72 

61 Wood Witchery. Poem by Richard Burton . . 219 

158 Yale Commencement Ode, Mr. Stedman's . . 329 

187 

. . 22, 56, 86, 120, 153, 181, 215, 244, 274, 301, 326, 348 

. . 25, 59, 90, 123, 156, 184, 218, 247, 276, 303, 328, 351 

. . 28, 60, 92, 125, 158, 186, 221, 248, 277, 304, 329, 352 
... 29, 61, 93, 126, 159, 222, 249, 277, 305, 330, 353 

. . 29, 62, 93, 126, 159, 190, 222, 250, 277, 306, 330, 353 



AUTHORS AND TITLES OF BOOKS REVIEWED. 



Adams, Herbert B. Contributions to American 

Educational History 26 

Addison, Daniel D. Life, Letters, and Diary of 

Lucy Larcom 328 

Akerman, William. The Cross of Sorrow . . 152 

Aldrich, Thomas B. Unguarded Gates ... 82 

Allen, Alexander V. G. Religious Progress . . 214 
Allen, Thomas G., Jr., and Sachtleben, Wm. L. 

Across Asia on a Bicycle 211 

Andrews, E. Benjamin. History of the U. S. . 

Apthorp, W. F. Musicians and Music-Lovers . 56 

Arnold, Sarah L. Way-Marks for Teachers . 246 

Arnold, Sir Edwin. Wandering Words . . . 212 

Ashley, W. J. Economic Classics " . . . . 246 

Atchison, Rena M. Un-American Immigration . 180 
Baldwin, Charles Sears. Inflections and Syntax 

of the Morte D' Arthur 25 

Baldwin, James. Choice English Lyrics . . . 348 
Baldwin, James Mark. Mental Development in 

the Child and the Race 325 

Bancroft, H. H. Book of the Fair 184 

Barnett, S. and H. Practicable Socialism . . 179 
Bates, Katharine Lee. Shakespeare's Merchant 

of Venice 123 

Bell, Lilian. A Little Sister to the Wilderness . 270 
Bell, Mrs. Arthur. An Elementary History of Art 26 
Besant, Walter. Beyond the Dreams of Avarice 273 
Betham-Edwards, M. A Romance of Dijon . 273 
Bhikshu, Subadra. A Buddhist Catechism . . 155 
Bierbower, Austin. From Monkey to Man . . 26 
Bigelow, John. Life of Samuel J. Tilden . . 291 
Bishop, Isabella Bird. Six Months in the Sand- 
wich Islands 217 

Bjornson, Bjornstjerne. Synnove Solbakken . 55 

Blair, Edward T. Henry of Navarre .... 144 

Blake, William. The Cross 25 

Bliss, William R. Side Glimpses from the New 

England Meeting-House 218 



Body, C. W. E. The Permanent Value of the 

Book of Genesis 213 

Borgeaud, Charles. The Rise of Modern Democ- 
racy in Old and New England 20 

Bouve", E. T. Centuries Apart 53 

Boyd, A. K. H. St. Andrews and Elsewhere . 275 

Boyesen, H. H. Essays on Scandinavian Literature 301 

Brace, Charles Loring, Life and Letters of . . 88 

Bradshaw, John. Concordance to Milton . . 26 
Bramwell, Amy B. The Training of Teachers in 

the United States 113 

Brentano, Lujo. Hours, Wages, and Production 343 

Briggs, Chas. A. The Messiah of the Gospels . 213 

Brooks, Noah. Abraham Lincoln 122 

Brown, H. F. John Addington Symonds . . 205 
Bruce, Alexander B. St. Paul's Conception of 

Christianity 214 

Bruner, J. D. Phonology of the Pistojese Dialect 304 

Buckley, Edmund. Phallicism in Japan . . . 329 

Burstall, Sara A. Education of Girls in the U. S. 113 
Butcher, S. H. Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and 

Fine Art 298 

Cable, George W. John March, Southerner . 51 
Callaway, Morgan, Jr. Select Poems of Sidney 

Lanier 299 

Carman, Bliss, and Hovey, Richard. Songs from 

Vagabondia 84 

Cams, Paul. A Primer of Philosophy .... 82 

Carus, Paul. Gospel of Buddha 155 

Gary, Edward. Life of George William Curtis . 245 

Cawein, Madison. Intimations of the Beautiful 84 

Century Magazine, Vol. XLIX 329 

Chadwick, J. W. Old and New Unitarian Belief 214 

Chambers's Concise Gazetteer 59 

Champernowne, Henry. The Boss 149 

Chatfield-Taylor, H. C. Two Women and a Fool 271 

Church, A. J. Stories from English History . 26 

Church, Mary C. Life and Letters of Dean Church 176 



VI. 



INDEX. 



Clark, Bishop, Reminiscences of 328 

Clark, T. M. Architect, Owner, and Builder be- 
fore the Law 156 

Clough, Arthur Hugh, Selections from the Poems 

of 25 

Clowes, W. Laird. The Double Emperor . . 52 

Codman, John T. Brook Farm Memoirs . . . 184 

Coffin, C. C. Daughters of the Revolution . . 328 
Coleridge, Ernest Hartley. Letters of Samuel 

Taylor Coleridge 316 

Collins, John C. Essays and Studies .... 244 

Columbia College, General Catalogue of ... 90 
Conkling, Alfred R. City Government in the 

United States 149 

Couway, Moncure D. Writings of Thomas Paine 276 

Cooke, J. E. V. A Patch of Pansies . . . 85 

Corson, Hiram. Aims of Literary Study . . . 109 

Couch, A. T. Quiller. The Golden Pomp . . 349 

Craik, Henry. Life of Jonathan Swift ... 90 

Crawford, F. Marion. The Ralstons .... 272 

Crockett, S. R. The Lilac Sunbonnet .... 53 

Cunningham, Sir H. S. Sibylla 54 

Curtin, Jeremiah. Tales of the Irish Fairies . 350 
Curtis, George William. Literary and Social 

Essays 245 

Dahlgren, Madeleine V. Social-Official Etiquette 

of the U. S 218 

Dante Society, Thirteenth Annual Report of the 89 

Davidson, John. Ballads and Songs .... 151 
Davidson, Thomas. The Education of the Greek 

People 115 

Davis, Richard Harding. The Princess Aline . 273 

De Garmo, Charles. Herbart and the Herbartians 245 

De Koven, Mrs. Reginald. A Sawdust Doll . 270 

Deland, Margaret. Philip and His Wife . . . 272 

Dennis, John. The Age of Pope 122 

Deussen, Paul. Elements of Metaphysics . . 80 

Ditchfleld, P. H. Books Fatal to Their Authors 351 

Douglas, James. Canadian Independence . . 22 

Dumas, Alexandre. Napoleon 120 

Duruy, George. Memoirs of Barras .... 338 
Edgeworth, Maria. Castle Rackrent and the 

Absentee, Macmillan's edition 184 

Edgren, A. H. A translation of " Sakuntala " . 304 

Edmonds, Mrs. Amygdala 54 

Emerson, Oliver Farrar. The History of the En- 
glish Language 156 

Fewkes, J. W. Journal of American Ethnology 

and Archaeology 24 

Fielde, Adele M. A Corner of Cathay . . . 210 

Fields, Mrs. J. T. A Shelf of Old Books . . 154 

Fletcher, J. S. The Wonderful Wapentake . . 303 

Flint, Robert. Socialism 177 

Foote, Mary Hallock. CcBur d'Alene .... 271 

Forbes, Archibald. Colin Campbell .... 351 

Ford, Paul L. Honorable Peter Stirling ... 52 

Ford, Paul L. Writings of Thomas Jefferson . 23 

Fortier, Alee. Louisiana Folk-Tales .... 276 

Foster-Melliar, A. The Book of the Rose . . 247 
Fouard, Abbe* Constant. Saint Paul and His 

Missions 213 

Freytag, Gustav. Technique of the Drama . . 77 
Froude, J. A. English Seamen in the Sixteenth 

Century 341 

Froude, J. A. Life and Letters of Erasmus . 73 

Frye, A. E. Complete Geography 352 

Gait, John. Annals of the Parish, Macmillan's 

edition 352 



Gardiner, S. R. History of the Commonwealth 

and Protectorate 234 

Garnett, James M. Hayne's Speech .... 59 
Gibbs, Montgomery B. Military Career of Na- 
poleon the Great 184 

Gilbert, Gustav. Constitutional Antiquities of 

Sparta and Athens 352 

Godwin, Parke. Commemorative Addresses . 122 

Gb'hre, Paul. Three Months in a Workshop . . 178 

Gollanz, Israel. The " Temple " Shakespeare . 156 

Goodwin, Maud W. The Colonial Cavalier . . 153 

Gordon, Julien. Poppsea 272 

Gordon, Mrs. Life and Correspondence of Wil- 
liam Buckland 172 

Gosse, Edmund. In Russet and Silver . . . 150 

Graetz, H. History of the Jews 59 

Greene, F. D. The Armenian Crisis in Turkey . 327 
Green, John Richard. Short History of the En- 
glish People, Illustrated edition 276 

Greenwood, Frederick. Imagination in Dreams . 325 
Gregorovius, Ferdinand. History of the City of 

Rome in the Middle Ages ....... 329 

Grosart, A. B. Green Pastures 297 

Grosart, A. B. The Poet of Poets 297 

Grossman, Edwina Booth. Edwin Booth ... 17 

Gummere, F. B. Old English Ballads .... 87 

Hadow, W. H. Studies in Modern Music . . 274 
Haeckel, Ernst. Monism as Connecting Religion 

and Science 215 

Haggard, H. Rider. The People of the Mist . 53 
Hare, Augustus J. C. Life and Letters of Maria 

Edgeworth 327 

Harrison, Frederic. The Meaning of History . 182 

Harrison, Mrs. Burton. A Bachelor Maid . . 272 

Harte, Walter B. Meditations in Motley . . 89 
Haupt, Paul. Polychrome edition of the Old 

Testament Texts 304 

Hazard, Caroline. Narragansett Ballads ... 84 

Hearn, Lafcadio. Out of the East 241 

Hempl, George. Chaucer's Pronunciation . . 25 
Henry, Victor. Comparative Grammar of En- 
glish and German 23 

Herbert, Auberon. Windfall and Waterdrift . 152 

Hertz, Heinrich. Electric Waves 79 

Hill, David J. Genetic Philosophy .... 82 
Hill, George Birkbeck. Harvard College . . 295 
Hinds, Allen B. The England of Elizabeth . . 246 
Hobson, J. A. Evolution of Modern Capital- 
ism 343 

Hoffman, F. S. The Sphere of the State . . 20 

Hole, Dean. More Memories 90 

Hope, Anthony. A Man of Mark 273 

Hope, Anthony. The God in the Car .... 54 

Hope, Anthony. The Indiscretion of the Duchess 54 
Home, Herbert P. The Binding of Books . .217 

Howe, George G. Systematic Science Teaching 116 
Howells, William Cooper. Recollections of Life 

in Ohio 243 

Hull-House Maps and Papers 239 

Hurll, Estelle M. Child-life in Art .... 90 

Huxley, Thomas H. Evolution and Ethics . . 58 

Ibsen, Henrik. Lille Eyolf 5 

James, Henry. Theatricals, Second Series . . 156 

Jebb, Mrs. John Gladwyn. A Strange Career . 245 

Jenkins, T. A. L'Espurgatoire Seint Patriz . . 123 

Joinville, Prince de, Memoirs of the .... 183 

Jdkai, Maurus. Eyes Like the Sea .... 55 

Jones, Benjamin. Cooperative Production . . 343 



INDEX. 



vn. 



Jones, Richard. Growth of the Idylls of the King 303 
Jonson, Ben, Selections from the Plays of . 218, 329 
Jusserand, J. J. A Literary History of the En- 
glish People 320 

Kelley, J. P. The Law of Service 179 

Kendall, May. Songs from Dreamland . . . 152 

Kernahan, Coulson. Sorrow and Song ... 88 

Kerr, Norman. Inebriety 26 

King, Charles R. Life and Correspondence of 

Rufus King 302 

Knight, Joseph. Pipe and Pouch 90 

Labor, The Rights of 181 

Ladd, George T. Philosophy of Mind . . . 326 
Lang, Andrew. Scott's Poems, " Dryburgh " edi- 
tion 247 

Lano, Paul de. Napoleon III. and Lady Stuart 276 

Lano, Pierre de. The Empress Euge'nie . . . 121 
Lamed, Walter C. Churches and Castles of Me- 

diseval France 351 

Latimer, Elizabeth W. England in the Nineteenth 

Century 121 

Le Gallienne, Richard. Prose Fancies ... 24 

Lewes, Louis. Shakespeare's Women .... 183 
Lewis, Edwin Herbert. History of the English 

Paragraph 89 

Lewis, Edwin S. Guernsey 304 

Lewis, L. R. National School Library of Song . 248 

Liddon, H. P. Clerical Life and Work ... 215 

Linton, W. J. Threescore and Ten Years . . 43 

Loftie, W. J. Inns of Court and Chancery . . 247 
Long, John Luther. Miss Cherry-Blossom of 

Tokyo 272 

Lord, Frances E. The Roman Pronunciation of 

Latin * 25 

Lowe, Charles. Prince Bismarck 351 

Lowell, Percival. Occult Japan 45 

Luccock, Herbert M. History of Marriage . . 275 

Lucy, Henry W. Gladstone 351 

Lydekker, Richard. Royal Natural History . 328 
Mach, E. Popular Scientific Lectures . . . 176 
Maclay, Edgar S. History of the U. S. Navy . 86 
Maeterlinck, Maurice, The Plays of .... 175 
Maeterlinck, M. Pelle'as and Mdlisande . . 59, 175 
Maitland, J. A. Fuller. German Masters of Con- 
temporary Music 24 

Marryatt, Captain. Japhet in Search of a Father, 

Macmillan's edition 328 

Marshall, Henry Rutgers. ^Esthetic Principles . 157 
Marston, R. B. Walton and Some Earlier Fish- 
ing Writers 301 

Martin, George H. Evolution of the Massachu- 
setts Public School System 115 

Mason, Otis T. Woman's Share in Primitive 

Culture 323 

Mazzini, Joseph. Essays 155 

McCarthy, Justin. A History of Our Own Times 26 
McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of 

the U. S 319 

Merrill, John E. Ideals and Institutions . . . 218 
Miln, Louise Jordon. When We Were Strolling 

Players in the East 211 

Milner, George. Studies of Nature on the Coast 

of Arran 303 

Mitchell, S. Weir. When all the Woods Are Green 52 
Moliere, The Works of. Roberts's edition . . 276 
Moore, E. Tutte le Opere di Dante Alighieri . 215 
Morgan, C. Lloyd. An Introduction to Compar- 
ative Psychology 325 



Morris, Harrison S. Madonna 85 

Moses, Adolph. The Religion of Moses . . . 213 
Moulton, Louise Chandler. Selections from the 

Poems of Arthur O'Shaughnessy .... 86 

Muir, John. Mountains of California .... 75 

Muller, F. Max. The Vedanta Philosophy . . 80 
Murdock, W. G. Burn. From Edinburgh to the 

Antarctic 216 

Murray, J. A. H. New English Dictionary . . 90 
Nichols, Herbert. Our Notions of Number and 

Space 81 

Nicholson, J. Shield. Historical Progress and 

Ideal Socialism 178 

Nordau, Max. Degeneration 236 

Norman, Henry. The Peoples and Politics of the 

Far East 264 

O'Donoghue, D. J. The Humor of Ireland . . 302 
Oliphant, Mrs. The Victorian Age of English 

Literature 90 

Ordish, T. Fairman. Early London Theatres . 47 
Ormond, Alexander T. Basal Concepts in Phil- 
osophy 81 

Orrington Lunt Library Building, Report of the 

Exercises at the Opening of the 304 

Ostrander, D. Social Growth and Stability . . 181 

Otken, Chas. H. Ills of the South 180 

Owen, Richard. Life of Richard Owen . . . 171 
Page, Mary H. Graded Schools in the United 

States 113 

Painter, F. V. N. Introduction to English Lit- 
erature 122 

Pancoast, Henry S. An Introduction to English 

Literature 275 

Parkhurst, C. H. Our Fight with Tammany . 149 

Paulsen, Friedrich. The German Universities . 294 

Perl, Henry. Venezia 218 

Perrot, Georges, and Chipiez, Charles. History 

of Art in Primitive Greece 142 

Peterson, Arthur. Penrhyn's Pilgrimage . . 86 

Pfirshing, Mena C. Memories of Italian Shores 247 
Poyen-Bellisle, M. Rene* de. Les Sons et les 

Formes du Crdole dans les Antilles . . . 216 

Price, Eleanor C. In the Lion's Mouth . . . 273 

Price, W. T. Life of William Charles Macready 217 

Prothero, G. W. Select Statutes 21 

Public Library Hand-Book 303 

Putnam-Jacobi, Mary. Common Sense Applied 

to Woman Suffrage 22 

Quatrefages, M. de. The Pygmies .... 349 

Rae, John. Eight Hours for Work .... 343 

Raleigh, Walter. The English Novel .... 56 

Ramsay, William. Manual of Roman Antiquities 26 
Raymond, Professor. Rhythm and Harmony in 

Poetry and Music 349 

Remsen, Daniel S. Primary Elections ... 22 

Repplier, Agnes. In the Dozy Hours .... 153 

Rhys, Ernest. Lyric Poems of Spenser . . . 297 

Rhys, Ernest. Malory's Morte Darthur . . . 184 

Rhys, Ernest. The Prelude to Poetry ... 58 

Ribot, Th. Diseases of the Will 81 

Ritchie, Anne Thackeray. Chapters from Some 

Unwritten Memoirs 8 

Robertson, J. Logie. History of English Liter- 
ature for Secondary Schools 57 

Robinson, Charles N. The British Fleet ... 26 
Robinson, Charles S. Simon Peter, His Later 

Life and Labors 213 

Robinson, Harry Perry. Men Born Equal . . 271 



Vlll. 



INDEX. 



Rogers, Robert Cameron. The Wind in the Clear- 
ing 85 

Ropes, John C. Story of the Civil War ... 48 
Rose, J. H. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic 

Era 121 

Ruggles, H. J. The Plays of Shakespeare . . 242 

Saintsbury, George. Corrected Impressions . . 181 

Saintsbury, George. Novels of Tobias Smollett 304 

Sala, G. A. London Up to Date 183 

Sala, G. A., Life and Adventures of .... 106 

Sargent, Herbert H. Napoleon's First Campaign 247 

Saunders, Frederick. Character Studies ... 25 

Schelling, F. E. Elizabethan Lyrics .... 297 

Schindler, Solomon. Young West 181 

Schreiber, T. Atlas of Classical Antiquities . 303 
Scott, Michael. Tom Cringle's Log, Macmillan's 

edition 329 

Scott's Poems. Crowell's one-volume edition . 351 
Seccombe, Thos. Baron Munchausen's Adven- 
tures 304 

Se'gur, Philippe de. An Aide-de-Camp of Na- 
poleon 350 

Sephton, J. Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason . 329 
Seyffert, Oskar. Dictionary of Classical An- 
tiquities 123 

Sharp, William. Vistas 174 

Shaw, Albert. Municipal Government in Great 

Britain 148 

Sheppard, Edgar. Memorials of St. James's 

Palace 22 

Simonds, Arthur B. American Song .... 217 
Simonds, W. E. Introduction to the Study of 

Fiction 56 

Skeat, W. W. Chaucer's Complete Works . . 116 

Skeat, W. W. The Student Chaucer .... 218 

Smiles, Samuel. Life of Josiah Wedgwood . . 57 
Smith, Benjamin E. The Century Cyclopedia of 

Names 344 

Smith, C. Alphonso. Repetitions and Parallel- 
isms in English Verse 24 

Smith, C. Ernest. The Old Church in the New 

Land 214 

Smith, W. Robertson. Lectures on the Religion 

of the Semites 156 

Smithsonian Report for 1893 218 

Smollett, Tobias, Bohn's edition of the Works of 304 
Smyth, Herbert Weir. Sounds and Inflections 

of the Greek Dialect 90 

Spenser's " Faerie Queene," Macmillan's edition 350 
Stearns, Frank Preston. Life and Genius of 

Tintoretto 276 

Stedman, E. C., and Woodberry, G. E. The 

Works of Edgar Allan Poe . ... . . . 138 

Steel, G. An English Grammar and Analysis . 123 
Stephens, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biog- 
raphy 59, 156, 276 

Stephens, Leslie. The Playground of Europe . 247 
Stevens, C. Ellis. Sources of the Constitution of 

the United States 21 

Stevenson, R. L. The Amateur Emigrant . . 182 
St. Pierre, Bernardin de. Paul and Virginia, Mc- 

Clurg's edition 275 

Strachan-Davidson, J. L. Cicero and the Fall of 

the Roman Republic 58 

Strachey, Mrs. Richard. Poets on Poets . . . 184 

Strachey, Sir Edward. Talk at a Country House 154 

Strahan, S. A. K. Suicide and Insanity . . . 324 

Sturgis, Julian. A Book of Song 151 



Sutton, Ada L. Lingua Gemmse 329 

Symonds, John A. Blank Verse 155 

Symonds, John A. Giovanni Boccaccio . . . 218 
Taylor, Susette M. The Humor of Spain . . 302 
Ten Brink, Bernhard. Five Lectures on Shake- 
speare . . . . 274 

Thaxter, Celia, Letters of 351 

Thayer, William R. Poems New and Old . . 83 

Theatrical Sketches 218 

Thiers, Louis Adolph. History of the French 

Revolution 156 

Thomas, Edith M. In Sunshine Land .... 83 

Thompson, Maurice. Lincoln's Grave ... 84 

Thorpe, F. N. Constitution of the U. S. . . . 304 

Todd, Mabel Loomis. Letters of Emily Dickinson 146 
Tolman, W. H. Municipal Reform Movements 

in the United States 180 

Tourgue"nieff, Ivan. On the Eve 304 

Tower, Charlemagne, Jr. The Marquis de La 

Fayette in the American Revolution . . . 208 

Traill, H. D. Social England 15 

Tyrrell, R. Y. Latin Poetry 267 

Universities, Four American 296 

University of Nebraska Studies 123 

Utopia, Towards 179 

Van Dyke, John C. A Text-Book of the History 

of Painting 276 

Van Norden, Charles. The Psychic Factor . . 81 
Vedder, H. C. American Writers of To-day . 88 
Venable, W. H. Poems of Wm. Haines Lytle . 247 
Vernon, William Warren. Readings on the In- 
ferno of Dante 25 

Von Hoist, H. The French Revolution ... 10 

Waite, Hallsworth. Shakespeare's Stratford . 25 

Walker, Francis A. General Hancock ... 57 

Wallace, William. Hegel's Philosophy of Mind 81 

Ward, W. C. Poems of William Drummond . 298 

Warner, Amos G. American Charities . . . 180 

Warner, Charles Dudley. The Golden House . 50 

Watkins, Mildred C. American Literature . . 302 

Watson, John. Annals of a Quiet Valley . . 303 

Watson, William. Odes and Other Poems . . 150 
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. History of Trade 

Unionism 342 

Wendell, Barrett. William Shakspere ... 13 
Weston, James A. Historic Doubts as to the 

Execution of Marshal Ney 326 

Wharton, Anne H. Colonial Days and Dames . 123 

What Shall I Play ? 352 

Wiel, Alethea. Venice 87 

Wild Flowers of California, A Collection of . . 90 
Willard, Joseph A. Half a Century with Judges 

and Lawyers 247 

Williams, Alfred M. Studies in Folk-Song and 

Popular Poetry 182 

Williams, Francis H. The Flute Player ... 85 

Williams, Hamilton. Britain's Naval Power . 246 
Wilson, James Grant. The Presidents of the 

United States 269 

Wilson, James Grant. The World's Largest Li- 
braries 156 

Wolff, H. W. Odd Bits of History .... 276 
Woodberry, George E. Selections from the 

Poems of Aubrey de Vere 86 

Yellow Book, The -154 

Zimmern, Alice. Methods of Education in the 

United States 113 

Zola, Emile. Lourdes 54 



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THE DIAL 

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No. %05. JANUARY 1, 1895. Vol. XVII I. 



CONTENTS. 



ROBEET LOUIS STEVENSON 3 

IBSEN'S NEW PLAY, "LILLE EYOLF." William 

Morton Payne 5 

JANUARY (Poem). John Vance Cheney 6 

COMMUNICATIONS 7 

English Literature in American Libraries. F, I. 

Carpenter. 

The Perilous Use of Unknown Tongues. W. H. 
Johnson. 

MORE MEMORIES OF LITERARY LONDON. 

E.G.J. 8 

MIRABEAU AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

D. L. Shorey 10 

A NEW BOOK ON SHAKESPEARE. Edward E. 

Hale, Jr 13 

SOCIAL PROGRESS IN ENGLAND. Arthur B. 

Woodford 15 

EDWIN BOOTH'S LETTERS. Elwyn A. Barron . 17 

RECENT POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS. Harry Pratt 

Judson 20 

Hoffmann's The Sphere of the State. Borgeaud's 
Modern Democracy in Old and New England. Stev- 
ens's Sources of the Constitution. Prothero's Select 
Statutes. Mary Putnam-Jacobi's Woman Suffrage. 
Remsen's Primary Elections. Douglas's Canadian 
Independence. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 22 

Memorials of St. James's Palace. More of the writ- 
ings of Jefferson . English - German Comparative 
Grammar. Snake Dance of the Indians. The liv- 
ing composers of Germany. "Prose Fancies." Re- 
petitions and parallelisms in English verse. Histor- 
ical studies of the English language. The Cross as 
a religious symbol. Stratford described and pic- 
tured. Character studies of literary folk. 

BRIEFER MENTION 25 

NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 27 

LITERARY NOTES ..28 

TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 29 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 29 



ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. 

The death of Robert Louis Stevenson, on the 
third of December, in his South Sea Island 
home, is a grief to the whole English-speaking 
world. Wherever our tongue is spoken, in 
England and in America, in India, Australia, 
and South Africa, his name has been a house- 
hold word for at least ten years past, and his 
books have brought delight into countless lives, 
young and old. Now, that rare spirit has left 
its too frail tenement, and only a memory re- 
mains with those who loved him. Even the 
healing airs of the Pacific availed to prolong 
only for a few brief years the precious existence 
upon which disease had already fastened when 
Bournemouth was exchanged for Samoa ; but 
those years, few as they have been, have proved 
the most richly productive of his career, and 
our grief becomes the more poignant when we 
realize that he has been stricken in the very 
fulness of his powers, and when we think of 
what treasures one more decade of his life might 
have added to our literature. 

As it is, the list of Mr. Stevenson's books is 
a long one, longer than stands to the credit of 
many a writer who rounds out the scriptural 
tale of years. And when we consider, on the 
one hand, the physical disabilities under which 
the author labored, and, on the other, the fault- 
less workmanship as well as the prevailing man- 
liness and sanity of his output, we must reckon 
him among the most remarkable literary fig- 
ures of the time. He served a long and pain- 
ful apprenticeship to his art ; he waited until 
he felt himself well in hand ; and then, in spite 
of bodily conditions that would have daunted 
the will and quenched the ambition of the great 
majority of men, he began that steady stream 
of literary production whose flow was to cease 
only with his life. He would seem to have 
taken deeply to heart Spinoza's noble maxim 
that the free man thinks of nothing less than 
of death, and, with death for years staring him 
in the face, he asserted his spiritual freedom 
by writing volume after volume, in which the 
predominant note is one of cheer and in which 
the morbid finds scarcely a foothold. One 
thinks of Condorcet in prison, waiting for the 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



summons of the executioner, yet living " in an 
elysium that his reason has known how to cre- 
ate for itself, and that his love for humanity 
adorns with all purest delights." 

Mr. Stevenson, in spite of his excursions into 
other fields of literature, will be best remem- 
bered as a novelist. He has seemed, indeed, 
of late years to recognize that this was his true 
vocation ; and most of his recent work, as well 
as most of that planned for the immediate fu- 
ture, was in fiction. His novels are far from 
being of equal excellence. Some of them 
"Prince Otto," "The Black Arrow," "The 
Wrong Box," " The Wreckers," " The Ebb- 
Tide," must be regarded as relative failures 
with some insistence upon the relativity. The 
" Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," 
with all its fantastic psychological strength, is 
hardly to be ranked among the masterpieces. 
But of " The Master of Ballantrae," of " Kid- 
napped " and its sequel " Catriona," and of the 
best of the " New Arabian Nights " stories, 
there can be no question ; nor can there be any 
of " Treasure Island," equally good reading for 
young and old. Little fiction of the last ten 
yeare has so fair a chance of immortality as 
these books. 

Of the many volumes of miscellaneous prose 
other than fiction, it is hard to single out those 
most likely to live. Hardly one of them is 
without its admirers if not its zealous partisans. 
Among the collections of essays, the " Virgin- 
ibus Puerisque " volume has perhaps the warm- 
est place in the affections of the most discrim- 
inating readers. But let no one on this account 
neglect the " Familiar Studies of Men and 
Books," the " Memories and Portraits," or the 
papers gathered under the title of " Across the 
Plains." As for the altogether delightful books 
of travel, we find it impossible to choose be- 
tween "An Inland Voyage " and " Travels with 
a Donkey in the Cevennes." And of course a 
special word must be given to the group of 
books that deal with life in the Southern Seas, 
to the fiction of the " Island Nights Entertain- 
ments," to the fact of " A Footnote to History," 
and to the stirring verse of the " Ballads." In 
this connection, we instantly associate Mr. Stev- 
enson with Melville, and "Pierre Loti," and 
Mr. Charles Warren Stoddard ; and he seems 
to head the list. 

As for Mr. Stevenson's verse, while it is of 
no great consequence, yet it cannot be left un- 
mentioned. Besides the " Ballads " already 
alluded to, there is "A Child's Garden of 
Verse," that unique illustration of the projec- 



tion of an adult into a youthful mind, and the 
collection called " Underwoods," containing 
many charming poems of nature and of friend- 
ship, written in English and in Scots, and from 
which we must select as the writer's own sin- 
gularly fitting epitaph this lovely " Kequiem ": 

" Under the wide and starry sky, 
Dig the grave and let me lie, 
Glad did I live and gladly die, 
And I laid me down with a will. 

" This be the verse you grave for me, 
Here he lies where he longed to be, 
Home is the sailor, home from sea, 
And the hunter home from the hill." 

He has his wish now, for with the news of his 
death came the statement that he had been 
buried upon the summit of a mountain over- 
looking his Samoan home. 

The story of the dead writer's life may be 
simply told, and for it he has himself supplied 
the facts. Born in Edinburgh, November 13, 
1850, of a family of lighthouse engineers, he 
was destined for the ancestral calling. He 
attended school and university in Edinburgh, 
discovered that he did not want to be a civil 
engineer after all, tried the law, finding that 
equally distasteful, and determined to train 
himself for the profession of letters. At the 
age of twenty-three he began those wanderings 
in search of health that were to end only in the 
antipodes. We can trace these wanderings in 
his books, beginning with " Ordered South," 
and continuing the series through " Travels 
with a Donkey," " An Inland Voyage," " Across 
the Plains," and " The Silverado Squatters." 
The latter two books resulted from a steer- 
age trip to America in 1879, and a journey 
to the Pacific Coast on an emigrant train. 
While in San Francisco he married Mrs. Os- 
bourne. During the ensuing years, he lived 
at Bournemouth, in Scotland, and in various 
Continental resorts. In 1887 he made a sec- 
ond visit to America, and spent a winter in the 
Adirondacks. The summer following, he went 
to the Samoan islands, became so fascinated 
with the place that he purchased an estate, and 
settled down for the remainder of his days. 
How few those days were to be, we now know. 
But six years of domestic happiness and of 
healthful activity were no small boon for a man 
whose whole adult life had been a struggle for 
existence, and we doubt not he appreciated the 
blessing to the full. At all events his best was 
done in that peaceful retreat, and he himself 
was probably glad to accept it as his final rest- 
ing-place. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



IBSEN'S NEW PLAY, "LILLE JSYOLF." 

Since the publication of "En Folkefiende" in 
1882, every second year has been marked by the 
appearance of a new play from the pen of Dr. Ibsen. 
Two years may seem a long time to be given to the 
composition of a prose drama that occupies less than 
two hours in the acting, and fills a printed volume 
of very modest dimensions ; but we are assured by 
the author's biographer that the two years really go 
to the making of the work, and that the final pro- 
duct is the result of a labor limce for which few mod- 
ern writers have the requisite patience. It is only 
after careful study that we may comprehend the in- 
finite pains bestowed upon every detail of these re- 
markable works, or realize that few poets give their 
verse the elaboration bestowed by Dr. Ibsen upon 
the polished prose of his dialogue. 

The new play, which has just been received from 
Copenhagen, and of which translations into English, 
German, French, Russian, Dutch, Hungarian, Bo- 
hemian, and Polish have been arranged, is entitled 
" Lille Eyolf ," and is in three acts. Coming after 
" Hedda Gabler " and " Bygmester Solness," it is a 
relief to the reader, for it is simpler in plan and 
more obvious in significance. Many of its passages 
are far-reaching in their implications, and strike 
into the very depths of the soul; but the reader is 
not all the time haunted by the suggestion of some 
elusive allegory, some hidden meaning that leads 
him a will-o'-the-wisp chase and lands him in a bog 
of conjecture. Even the most ardent of symbolists 
may possibly be content to take this play for what 
it is, and see in it nothing more than a direct tran- 
script of life under ideal conditions arranged by a 
consummate artistic sense. 

Alfred Allmers and his wife, Rita, have been mar- 
ried for some ten years, and have one child, a boy 
of nine, named Eyolf. The child has been crippled 
in infancy, and is just reaching the age when he real- 
izes the difference between himself and other boys 
sound of limb. The father, passionately attached 
to his child, has determined to devote himself to his 
happiness, and bring what harmony is yet possible 
into a life so unfitted to battle for itself. He thus 
states his new-found aim: 

" I will try to bring to light all the rich possibilities that are 
dawning in his childish soul. I will bring to full growth, to 
flower and fruit, every germ of noble purpose within him. 
And I will do more than that. I will help him to harmonize 
his wishes with what things are attainable by him. For now 
they are not in harmony. He longs for things that will be 
unattainable all his life long. But I will create joy in his 
mind." 

These plans are all broken off by the accidental 
drowning in the fjord of the child, whose winsome 
figure, like that of Mamillius in "The Winter's 
Tale," makes but the briefest appearance upon the 
scene, then passes from our sight, although never 
from our memory. 

The remaining two acts of the play are essentially 
a study of two women and their relations with All- 



mers. The one is his wife, the other Asta Allmers, 
supposed to be his half-sister. With the latter he 
has grown up from childhood in the closest inti- 
macy. Now, following close upon the loss of the 
child, comes the discovery that the supposed rela- 
tionship of brother and sister does not exist; and 
the other discovery, which both realize as by a light- 
ning flash, but which neither ventures to commit to 
words, that they are more to one another than even 
a brother and sister can be. This situation, which 
is treated with the greatest delicacy, closes the sec- 
ond act. 

Allmers. Asta ! What are you saying ? 

Asta. Head the letters. Then you will see and under- 
stand. And perhaps you will forgive my mother, also. 

Allmers. [Putting his hands to his head.] I cannot grasp 
it, cannot hold fast to the thought. You, Asta, then you are 
not ? 

Asta. You are not my brother, Alfred. 

Allmers. [Quickly, half-defiant, gazing upon her.] Well, 
but how does that alter our relations after all ? Not in the 
least. 

Asta. [Shaking her head.] It alters everything, Alfred. 
Our relation is not that of brother and sister. 

Allmers. No, no ! But as sacred for all that. It will al- 
ways be as sacred. 

Asta. Do not forget that you are subject to the law of 
mutability, as you said but now. 

Allmers. [Looking searchingly at her.] Do you mean by 
that ? 

Asta. [Quietly, but deeply stirred.] Not a word more, 
dear, dear Alfred. [Taking up some flowers from a chair.] 
Do you see these water-lilies ? 

Allmers. [Nodding slowly.] They are of the sort that shoot 
up far up from the depths. 

Asta. I picked them in the pool. There, where it flows 
out into the fjord.- [Holding them out to him.] Will you have 
them, Alfred? 

Allmers. [Taking them.] Thank you. 

Asta. [With tearful eyes.] They are like a last greeting 
to you from from little Eyolf. 

Allmers. [Gazing upon her.] From Eyolf out yonder ? Or 
from you ? 

Asta. [Softly.] From us both. Come with me to Rita. 

Allmers. [Taking his hat and murmuring.] Asta. Eyolf. 
Little Eyolf ! 

The character of Rita, the wife, is less transpar- 
ent than that of Asta, and her motives are not so 
easily laid bare. In the first act she is presented 
to us as attached to Allmers to the point of grudg- 
ing him his interest in his intellectual pursuits, his 
affection for his 'sister, and even his absorption in 
the child. She sees with delight the prospect of a 
marriage between Asta and a young engineer who 
has for some time been laying siege to the sister's 
heart. 

Rita. I should be very glad to see a match made between 
him and Asta. 

Allmers. [Discontented.] Why would you like that ? 

Rita. [With rising emotion.] Because then she would have 
to go far away with him. She could never come out to us the 
way she does now. 

Allmers. [Looking at her with amazement.] What ! Would 
you like to get rid of Asta ? 

Rita. Yes, yes, Alfred. 

Allmers. But why in all the world ? 

Rita. [Passionately throwing her arms about his neck.] 
Because then I should at last have you for myself alone. Yet 
not quite then even. Not wholly for myself. [Bursting into 
convulsive tears.] Oh, Alfred, Alfred I cannot give you up I 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



Allmers. [Gently freeing himself.] But, dearest Rita, be 
reasonable. 

Rita. No, I don't care the least bit about being reasonable. 
I care only about you. For you alone in the whole world. 
[Flinging herself upon his neck again.] For you, for you, for 
you ! 

Allmers. Let go, let go, you hurt me. 

Rita. [Releasing him.] If I only could. [With flashing 
eyes.] Oh, if you only knew, how I have hated you ! 

Allmers. Hated me ? 

Rita. Yes, when you sat in there by yourself, brooding 
over your work. Long, long into the night. [Plaintively.] 
So long, so late, Alfred. Oh, how I hated your work ! 

Allmers. But now I have given it all up. 

Rita. [Laughing harshly.] Indeed ! Now you are absorbed 
in something yet worse. 

Allmers. [Excited.] Worse ! Do you call the child some- 
thing worse ? 

Rita. [Vehemently.] Yes, I do.'! In the relation between 
us two, I call him that. For the child, the child is besides 
a living human being, he is. [With increasing agitation.] But 
I will not bear it, Alfred ! I will not bear it, and I tell you so ! 

Allmers. [In a low voice, looking fixedly at her.] I am 
almost afraid of you at times, Rita. 

Rita. [Darkly.] I am often afraid of myself. And for 
just that reason you must not arouse the evil in me. 

This scene strikes the keynote of Rita's character. 
She displays jealousy, undoubtedly, but jealousy of 
a complex sort, jealousy even more morbid than 
that passion usually is. The problem of the re- 
maining two acts is that of working out the effects 
of the child's death upon this passionate nature, and 
upon the nature, equally passionate in its depths 
but outwardly more restrained, of Allmers. 

To trace the process by which these stricken souls 
find peace would be impossible without translating 
the greater part of the two acts that follow. For 
peace finally comes or we are at least assured that 
its advent is imminent to her, through love, now 
first realized, for the memory of the lost child ; to 
him, through a deeper penetration into the mystery 
of life. At first dazed with grief, the future a blank 
to both, they instinctively turn to one another for 
help, and, in community of grief, grope towards that 
higher plane of thought and feeling which is attain- 
able by the courageous, but, perhaps, only through 
the refiner's fire of suffering. We leave them with 
the ascent well begun, and the goal dimly in view. 
Moved by a common impulse of altruism, they re- 
solve, thus bereft of their own child, to make bet- 
ter and brighter the lives of the village children 
about them, the very children who had made no ef- 
fort to save Eyolf from his fate. We translate the 
beautiful scene with which the play ends : 

Allmers. What do you really think you can do for all these 
poverty-stricken children ? 

Rita. I will try to see if I cannot soften and ennoble 
their lot. 

Allmers, If you can do that, little Eyolf was not born in 
vain. 

Rita. Nor in vain taken from us. 

Allmers. [Looking fixedly at her.] Have no illusion upon 
one point, Rita. It is not love that impels you to this course. 

Rita. No, it is not that. At least not yet. 

Allmers. What is it, really ? 

Rita. [Half evasively.] You have so often talked to Asta 
about human responsibility 

Allmers. About the book you hated. 



Rita. I still hate the book. But I sat and listened when 
you spoke. And now I want to test myself. In my own way. 

Allmers. [Shaking his head.] It is not for the sake of the 
unfinished book ? 

Rita. No, I have a reason for it. 

Allmers. What ? 

Rita. [With a melancholy smile.] I want to find favor in 
those big, open eyes, you see. 

Allmers. [Resolutely, fixing his gaze upon her.] Could I 
not be with you, and help you, Rita ? 

Rita. Would you ? 

Allmers. Yes, if I only knew that I could. 

Rita. [Lingeringly.] But then you would have to stay 
here. 

Allmers. [Gently.] Let us try to make it succeed. 

Rita. [In a barely audible voice.] Let us try, Alfred. 

[Both are silent. Allmers goes to the staff and raises the 
flag that has floated at half-mast. Rita watches him in si- 
lence.] 

Allmers. [Coming back to her.] There is a hard day's 
work before us, Rita. 

Rita. But you shall see the peace of the sabbath fall upon 
us once more. 

Allmers. [With quiet emotion.] Perchance we shall have 
visits from the world of spirits. 

Rita. [Whispering.] Spirits? 

Allmers. Perchance they are about us those we have lost. 

Rita. [Nodding slowly.] Our little Eyolf . And your big 
Eyolf too. 

Allmers. [Gazing into space.] Perhaps on our way through 
life we may now and then catch some glimpses of them. 

Rita. Where shall we look, Alfred ? 

Allmers. [Fixing his eyes upon her.] Above. 

Rita. [Nods in assent.] Yes, yes, above. 

Allmers. Above toward the mountain-peaks. Toward 
the stars. And toward the great silence. 

Rita. [Stretching out her hand to him.] Thank you. 

In this lovely scene, and in the play of which it is 
the ending, we find once more the Ibsen that to 
some of us, at least, has seemed wellnigh lost of re- 
cent years, the idealist of " Brand " and " Peer 
Gynt," the ethical leader who has preached so many 
sermons upon the theme of losing life for the sake 
of saving it. For this play is but another illustra- 
tion of the text, 

" Evigt ejes kun det tabte," 
which is the real subject of so many of Dr. Ibsen's 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYXE. 



JANUARY. 



Say it, my Winds, was never king but me ! 

Say it, and say the king is on his throne, 

His lords about him. Stand, lords, you, mine own; 

Hearts of my heart, let but one beating be: 

Now is the topmost hour of royalty. 

Ho, Winds, stick sharper, prick 'em to the bone ! 

Yon oak, there, wrench him, fetch a louder groan ! 

Bow, bow, old bald-top, bend the creaking knee ! 

Rake, strip the hill; smite harder, Winds, by half; 

Drive, Cold, clean to men's hearts, set deep your sting 

In men. Lords', come, a hollowf ul we quaff, 

Then for a roaring stave ; hey, drink and sing ! 

The world's last window, rack it with your laugh: 

Ha, ha ! but it is good to be a king ! 

JOHN VANCE CHENEY. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



ENGLISH LITERATURE IN AMERICAN 

LIBRARIES. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

The rapidly increasing interest in the study of English 
literature in American schools and universities, and the 
recent suggestion in THE DIAL that the leading specialty 
of the new Crerar Library should be English literature 
in the broad sense of the term, lends renewed value to 
the statistics and statements contained in the " Notes 
on Special Collections in American Libraries " issued 
from the Harvard College Library. From this docu- 
ment I summarize briefly the descriptions of the chief 
collections in English literature as reported from all the 
great libraries of the country except the Library of 
Congress at Washington. 

The best general collections are probably those at 
Harvard, in the Boston Public Library, in the Lenox 
Library at New York including the Duyckinck collection 
of 15,000 volumes in literary history, and in the Sutro 
Library at San Francisco. Considerable collections also 
exist at the University of California; at Johns Hopkins 
(especially complete in regard to Beowulf) ; at Lafayette 
College (Professor March's collection in Old and Mid- 
dle English, said to be " nearly complete for Anglo- 
Saxon ") ; in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Li- 
brary, Boston, including the Dowse collection of " best 
editions and rarities in English literature"; at the Uni- 
versity of Vermont (the George P. Marsh library) ; the 
collection of periodicals and of transactions and publi- 
cations of learned societies in the Chicago Public Library ; 
at Dartmouth College; the material originally used by 
Noah Webster in preparing his dictionary, belonging to 
the Hartford Library Association; and a few others of 
less importance. 

In addition to those specified above, the chief special 
collections are as follows: The Barton collection in the 
Boston Public Library, nearly 14,000 volumes, mostly 
Shakespeariana and rare editions of English Drama and 
Poetry. The Shakespeare collection of 1000 volumes 
in the Lenox Library, including all the early editions. 
Other Shakespeare collections as follows: The Wisconsin 
State Historical Society, 1200 volumes ; the Mercantile 
Library, Philadelphia, 1200 volumes (Shakespeare and 
the Drama); the Columbia College Library, 700 vol- 
umes; the St. Louis Public Library, 600 volumes; the 
Peabody Institute, Baltimore, 500 volumes; the Brown 
University Library, 400 volumes, including many rare 
pamphlets; and the recently acquired collection at the 
University of Michigan. Harvard, Columbia, and the 
Lenox have also considerable collections on Milton. The 
folk-lore collection of 5800 volumes at Harvard is " sup- 
posed to be the largest in existence." Harvard also has 
valuable Shelley and Carlyle MSS. and books. The 
Boston Athenaeum has a Byron collection of over 200 
volumes. Lafayette College has special collections on 
Priestley, De Foe, Junius, etc. The Lenox Library has 
a fine collection of incunabula, including a portion of the 
first English printed book, 1474, and other specimens 
of Caxton and the early English printers. 

Viewing these summaries as a whole, it is evident that 
there is nowhere in the United States any really satis- 
factory and fairly complete collection in the great field 
of English literature. A few special collections offer a 
promising beginning in one or more narrow parts of the 
field, but extended study and research over any wide 



area is hardly possible in this country. Of course no 
American library could ever hope to rival the British 
Museum or the Bodleian in their particular field, but 
it is a disgraceful lacuna in the endowment of American 
scholarship that research in almost any direction (except 
perhaps in Shakespeare study and in one or two mod- 
ern subjects) demanding any but the simplest and most 
elementary materials can only be prosecuted abroad. 
In no field except that of history and literature is one 
of the chief documents of history are great collections 
of books so necessary as in the study of literature, and 
the most universal of the arts will never attain to its 
proper dignity in American civilization until adequate 
material means for its fostering and promotion are af- 
forded. The Crerar Library could supply no greater 
need than by a collection of the literature of the En- 
glish tongue. 

F. I. CARPENTER. 

The University of Chicago, Dec. 22, 1894. 



THE PERILOUS USE OF UNKNOWN TONGUES. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

A great many people firmly believe that a knowledge 
of Latin is not at all necessary in order to get through 
this life successfully, but one might suppose that all 
would agree as to the necessity of such a knowledge to 
anyone who attempts to use the language. The sorry 
plight into which some of the Columbian Exposition 
officials were thrown by the lack of this knowledge has 
been pointed out by one of your correspondents. Let 
me call attention to a few similar cases of unsuccessful 
wrestling with an unknown tongue. In a ponderous 
work on the " Principles of Economic Philosophy," pub- 
lished several years ago, the principle "omnium vivum 
ex ovo " is stated, and, as if purposely to clear the 
printer of blame, we have as its counterpart " omnium 
ovum ex vivo." Perhaps nothing better should be ex- 
pected from a work on political economy published in 
the midst of a campaign, but it is only a few months 
since no less a magazine than " The Atlantic Monthly " 
was guilty of " omm'a Gallia," in quoting from the first 
sentence of Caesar's Commentaries ! By the help of 
Mrs. Partington, with her " omnibi," the process of re- 
duction from the third to the first and second declen- 
sions is complete for all genders, though the stems do not 
happen to coincide. But this is not all; along comes 
" The Cosmopolitan" with " monstrum informwm ingeus," 
which would have been much more terrible to Vergil 
than was Polyphemus to ^Eneas. " Ad valorwm," on 
the editorial page of " The Independent " a few years 
ago, may have been a mere typographical error; but 
" ex unwm quadraginta " (of the number of dishes of 
soup from one can of some new preparation), which I 
culled from a polyglot street-car advertisement in Bal- 
timore, is doubtless to be ascribed to the same cause 
operating in the other instances mentioned : crass ignor- 
ance of the language. Horace says: 

" Ludere qui nescit campestribus abstinet armis," 
which offers a very important suggestion to those who 
attempt to use Latin without some little knowledge of 
its forms. 

Since writing the above, I have received the Decem- 
ber " Education " (fresh from Boston /) with the informa- 
tion (p. 255) that Gudeman's " Dialogus de Oratoribus " 
contains " a prolegomena." 

W. H. JOHNSON. 

Denison University, Granville, O., Dec. 24, 1894. 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



Iffefo 



MOKE MEMOIRS OF LITERARY 

The qualities that won for Mrs. Anne Thack- 
eray Ritchie's "Records of Tennyson and Brown- 
ing " so cordial a welcome on both sides of the 
Atlantic are once more pleasantly in evidence 
in her " Chapters from Some Unwritten Me- 
moirs." Essentially the volume is a retrospect 
of the author's girlhood, which seems to have 
been divided pretty evenly between London and 
Paris, and the opening sentence sounds its key- 
note : 

" My father lived in good company, so that even as 
children we must have seen a good many poets and re- 
markable people, though we were not always conscious 
of our privileges." 

Mrs. Ritchie opens the series of pen-portraits 
which form the staple of her book with a lively 
sketch of her "first poet," Jasmin (Jaquou 
Jansemin, in the langue d' Oc), the barber-poet 
of Agen. She met Jasmin at a party given in 
his honor by Lady Elgin at Paris ; and the 
outer man of the tonsorial bard fell wofully 
short of her young ideal. She had learned at 
school some of his beautiful verses, and her 
fancy had painted a poet to match something 
in the Byrouic way, with a distinctive touch 
of " the warm South " superadded. But alas ! 
when the real Jasmin dawned upon her at Lady 
Elgin's rout, it was no belated troubabour that 
she saw, but a stout jovial figure like an over- 
ripe Bacchus a jolly, red, shining face, with 
round prominent features, framed with little 
pomatumy wisps of hair (smacking all too 
plainly of the shop), and a Falstaffian torso 
clad in a gorgeous frilled shirt over a pink lin- 
ing. She could have cried for vexation. It 
was her first illusion perdue. 

" That the poet ? not that,' I falter, gazing at 
Punchinello, high-shouldered, good-humored. ' Yes, of 
course it 's that,' said a little girl, laughing at my dis- 
may; and the crowd seems to form a circle, in the cen- 
tre of which stands this droll creature, who now begins 
to recite in a monotonous voice." 

Mrs. Ritchie understood French pretty well 
at the time ; but of Jasmin's jiatois she could 
make nothing. To her untrained ear the reci- 
tation was a meaningless " cAi, cAa, chou, at- 
chiou, atchiou, atchiou," a kind of mellifluous 
ProvenQal sneeze, to the rhythm of which the 
ample shirt-frill beat time, as the voice rose and 
fell. It leaves off at last, and there is a moment 
of silence, and then a buzz of low- voiced ad- 

* CHAPTERS FROM SOME UNWRITTEN MEMOIRS. By Anne 
Thackeray Ritchie. New York : Harper & Brothers. 



miration. She sees Punchinello (freely per- 
spiring and more shiny and rubicund than ever) 
led up the hostess to be congratulated and 
thanked and patronized, and then handed round 
to the company severally, like a sort of refresh- 
ment ; and the entertainment is over. 

" As we move towards the door again, we once more 
pass Mr. Locker (of the 'London Lyrics '), and he nods 
kindly, and tells me he knows my father. ' Well, and 
what do you think of Jasmin?' he asks; but I can't 
answer him, my illusions are dashed. ... I who had 
longed to see a poet ! who had pictured something so 
different ! I swallowed down as best I could that gulp 
of salt-water which is so apt to choke us when we first 
take our plunge into the experience of life." 

Yet Mrs. Ritchie had been that evening in 
a throng of poets, as she learned later ; for 
Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Girardin, Merimee, 
and some others, were of the company. And 
he too of the red face and the shirt-frill was a 
poet a poet of the people, writing from his 
heart in his own dialect ; one of the school, as 
Sainte-Beuve says, of Horace, and of Theocri- 
tus, and of Gray, and " of all those charming 
studious inspirations which aim at perfection 
in all their work." 

It was at Paris, also, that Mrs. Ritchie met 
her first musician ; and here there was no dis- 
illusionment. She accompanied, one morning, 
as she relates, a friend of her grandmother's on 
a visit to the lodgings of one whose name and 
identity were not at first made known to her. 
The friend was a Scotch lady of rank, who to 
the harshest of exteriors joined the mildest of 
souls ; and her errand on this occasion was 
plainly one of kindness, for there was a large 
basket in the carriage containing a store of 
viands and bottles. Arrived at a small house 
in a side street near the Arc de Triomphe, the 
carriage stopped, and the lady got out, care- 
fully carrying her parcel. The door was opened 
by a slight delicate-looking man with long hair, 
strangely bright eyes, and a thin hooked nose. 

" When Miss X. saw him she hastily put down her 
basket, caught both his hands in hers, began to shake 
them gently, and to scold him in an affectionate reprov- 
ing way for having come to the door. He laughed, said 
he had guessed who it was, and motioned her to enter, 
and I followed at her sign with the basket followed 
into a narrow little room, with no furniture in it what- 
ever but an upright piano and a few straw chairs stand- 
ing on the wooden shiny floor. He made us sit down 
with some courtesy, and in reply to her questions said 
he was pretty well. Had he slept ? He shook his head. 
Had he eaten ? He shrugged his shoulders and pointed 
to the piano. He had been composing something I 
remember that he spoke in an abrupt, light sort of way 
would Miss X. like to hear it? ' She would like to hear 
it,' she answered, ' she would dearly like to hear it; but it 
would tire him to play ; it could not be good for him.' " 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



9 



He smiled again, shook back his long hair, and 
=seated himself at the piano ; and instantly the 
room was filled with a rain of continuous sound, 
a fluent stream of rippling melody that rose 
and fell, and swelled and died away again, until 
the strained ear scarcely caught its echo. There 
was a magician at the keys. 

" The lady sat absorbed and listening, and as I looked 
:at her I saw tears in her eyes great clear tears rolling 
down her cheeks while the music poured on and on. I 
can't, alas, recall that music ! I would give anything 
to remember it now; but the truth is I was so interested 
in the people that I scarcely listened. When he stopped 
at last and looked tound, the lady started up. 'You 
mustn't play any more,' she said; 'it's too beautiful' 
and she praised him in a tender, motherly, pitying sort 
of way, and then hurriedly said we must go; but as we 
took leave she added almost in a whisper with a humble 
apologizing look ' I have brought you some of that 
jelly, and my sister sent some of the wine you fancied 
the other day; pray try to take a little.' He again 
shook his head at her, seeming more vexed than grate- 
ful. 'It is very wrong; you shouldn't bring me these 
things,' he said in French. 'I won't play to you if you 
do ' but she put him back softly, and hurriedly closed 
the door upon him and the offending basket, and hast- 
ened away." 

The player was Chopin. " Never forget," said 
Mrs. Ritchie's companion, " that you have heard 
Chopin play ; for soon no one will ever hear 
him play any more." 

Mrs. Ritchie's historian, or rather her " pro- 
fessor of history," was not a Thiers, or a Guizot, 
or even a Lamartine. It was a certain quaint old 
body who, for the behoof of very young ladies, 
made a feint at giving historical lectures, keep- 
ing herself laboriously a chapter or so ahead 
of her pupils, and plunging (Mrs. Ritchie re- 
members) into the bloody chaos of the Merov- 
ingian and Carolingian times with a zest com- 
ically at odds with her own appearance. This 
Madame P., whose purse was even leaner than 
her lectures, is the heroine of a pleasant story 
of Thackeray, the truth of which is now vouched 
for by his daughter. 

" When my father came to Paris to fetch us away, he 
was interested in the accounts he heard of the old lady 
from his mother and cousin. ... I was sent one day 
to search for a certain pill-box in my father's room, of 
which he proceeded to empty the contents into the fire- 
place, and then, drawing a neat banker's roll from his 
pocket, to fill up the little cube with new napoleons, 
packing them in closely up to the brim. After which, 
the cover being restored, he wrote the following prescrip- 
tion in his beautiful even handwriting :' Madame P. . . . 
To be taken occasionally when required. Signed, Dr. 
W. M. T.' " 

Years after, when Paris was besieged by the 
Germans, and Madame P. was in sorer straits 
than ever before, " Dr. W. M. T.'s " generous 
prescription was repeated this time in the 



form of a draft on the Rothschilds. It was 
learned later, however, that the beleaguered old 
lady had scorned to apply the money to the 
purchase of luxuries above the horrible frican- 
deaux and salmis of rats and mice to which her 
neighbors were reduced, subscribing it rather, 
as she proudly said, " to the cannon which were 
presented by our quartier to the city of Paris." 

" My father," observes Mrs. Ritchie, " had 
a weakness for dandies." Magnificent speci- 
mens of the " Dandiacal body " used to cross 
her vision sometimes, as they passed through 
the hall to the study ; but there was one that 
outshone the rest as the sun the stars in bright- 
ness. This splendid person, she remembers, 
had a little pencil-sketch in his hand ; and it 
seemed to her impossible that so grand a being 
could be so feeble a draughtsman. 

" He appeared to us one Sunday morning in the sun- 
shine. When I came down to breakfast I found him 
sitting beside my father at the table, with an untasted 
cup of coffee before him; he seemed to fill the bow- 
window with radiance as if he were Apollo; he leaned 
against his chair with one elbow resting on its back, with 
shining studs and curls and boots. We could see his 
horse looking in at us over the blind. It was indeed a 
sight for little girls to remember all their lives." 

It was indeed ; for the visitor was Count D'Or- 
say the brilliant being who (as Richard Doyle 
relates) so impressed a literary man of the day 
that the latter was heard to roar out in dismay 
at a city banquet where D'Orsay was present, 
above the din of aldermanic gabbling and gob- 
bling, " Waiter ! for Heaven's sake bring melted 
butter for the flounder of the Count ! " He could 
not bear that the waiter's omission should rest 
as a blot upon his country's cookery. 

No literary memoir of the period would be 
complete without a glimpse of the Carlyles. 
Mrs. Ritchie first saw the sage at a dinner at 
her father's, given for Miss Bronte ; and she 
remembers him then chiefly as railing at the 
appearance of cockneys upon Scotch mountain- 
sides. There were also too many Americans 
there for his taste ; " but the Americans were 
as gods compared to the cockneys," he kindly 
added. Later, the old house in Cheyne Row 
(the Mecca of Carlyle's " millions of trans- 
atlantic bores "), became a familiar spot to her ; 
and here she heard from the lips of Mrs. Car- 
lyle many stories that have since strayed into 
print. " If," said the poor lady pathetically 
on one occasion, " if you wish for a quiet life, 
never you marry a dyspeptic man of genius." 
" I remember," Mrs. Ritchie adds, " she used 
to tell us how, when he first grew a beard, all 
the time he had saved by ceasing to shave he 



10 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1 



spent wandering about the house, and bemoan- 
ing that much was amiss in the universe." If 
Mrs. Carlyle was, as tradition says, a shade 
nearer Xanthippe than Griselda, there was as- 
suredly much in her universe to explain and 
palliate the fact. 

Mrs. Ritchie's notes on the Carlyles close 
with a characteristic little story that will bear 
re -telling. It seems that irreverent thieves 
having broken into the sanctuary at Chelsea 
and carried off the dining-room clock, it was 
arranged by some of the then aging philoso- 
pher's friends to formally present him with a 
new one. Lady Stanley was elected spokes- 
woman on the occasion : 

" It was Carlyle's birthday, and a dismal winter's day; 
the streets were shrouded in greenish vapors, and the 
houses looked no less dreary within than the streets 
through which we had come. Somewhat chilled and 
depressed, we all assembled in Lady Stanley's great 
drawing-room in Dover Street, where the fog had also 
penetrated, and presently from the farther end of the 
room, advancing through the darkness, came Carlyle. 
There was a moment's pause. No one moved. He 
stood in the middle of the room without speaking. No 
doubt the philosopher as well as his disciples felt the influ- 
ence of the atmosphere. Lady Stanley went to meet him. 
' Here is a little birthday present we want you to accept 
from us all, Mr. Carlyle,' said she, quickly pushing up 
before him a small table upon which stood the clock 
ticking all ready for his acceptance. Then came another 
silence, broken by a knell, sadly sounding in our ears. 
' Eh, what have I got to do with Time any more ? ' he 
said. It was a melancholy momenjt. Nobody could 
speak. The unfortunate promoter of the scheme felt 
her heart sink into her shoes." 

But we have quoted enough from Mrs. 
Ritchie's pleasant and, in its light way, mat- 
terful little book to show its scope and tenor. 
Other chapters treat of further Paris and Lon- 
don memories, of tours on the continent, includ- 
ing a visit to Weimar, of " Mrs. Kemble," etc.; 
and there are pleasant glimpses throughout of 
Thackeray and his circle. E. G. J. 



MlKABEATJ AND THE FRENCH REV- 
OLUTION. * 

In the prefatory note to the two volumes con- 
taining the twelve lectures recently delivered 
by Professor Von Hoist before the Lowell In- 
stitute, the distinguished author asks readers 
and critics to take the pages for what they pur- 
port to be : not a book on the French Revolu- 
tion, but merely some lectures on it, given under 
prescribed limits. These lectures were pre- 

* THE FRENCH KE VOLUTION, Tested by Mirabeau's Career : 
Twelve Lectures on the History of the French Revolution. 
By H. Von Hoist. In two volumes, with portrait. Chicago : 
Callaghan & Co. 



pared for delivery before a great popular audi- 
ence, such as a forceful speaker of eminent 
reputation always commands in the lecture-hall 
of the Lowell Institute. Before such an audi- 
ence the lecturer had a right to assume that 
there were only a few who had made a special 
study of the Revolution, sufficient to enable 
them to follow the presentation of a single phase 
of the great movement without much prelim- 
inary explanation. The first six lectures, con- 
cerning the causes of the Revolution, were 
therefore given mainly as an introduction, to- 
prepare the audience for what the lecturer had 
to say about Mirabeau, for whom he has a de- 
cided partiality. 

The main interest in these volumes opens 
with the seventh lecture, on the party of one 
man, the fourth party in the Assembly, Mira- 
beau. " Yes," says the author, " and [he] not 
only was a party of himself, but he knew be- 
forehand that it would be so, and was deter- 
mined that it should be so." In that assembly 
of twelve hundred deputies there were many 
of the best as well as most illustrious men in 
France ; or, as La Marck says, all the capac- 
ities, talents, energy, and spirit in the kingdom. 
Mirabeau was then forty years old. He was 
the best-known man in that period of the Rev- 
olution. His abilities were of the highest order. 
He was the greatest orator in the Assembly. 
It is claimed that he was its greatest practical 
statesman. I cannot think that he desired to 
stand alone in the Assembly, having no party 
affiliations and wanting none. No one under- 
stood better than Mirabeau the difficult public 
questions that awaited solution. And no one 
understood better than he that even in public 
assemblies such questions can be solved best 
by a union of influential men acting together 
for a common purpose. The power to bring 
about such effective combinations is at least one 
of the best-known tests of practical statesman- 
ship. Nothing seems clearer than that Mira- 
beau desired to be a leader of a party in the As- 
sembly. He desired especially, while retaining 
his seat as deputy, to be in the ministry, where 
he would have the privilege of approaching the 
king openly, and not, as the privilege was only 
once accorded to him, of approaching the king 
secretly and by a private door. It is because 
he was a party by himself, and not because he 
determined to be so, that his desire was never 
gratified. Under the law of November 7, 1789, 
members of the Assembly could not enter the 
ministry. When that door to his ambition was 
closed, he passed the remainder of his life in- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



11 



vain efforts to make combinations with influen- 
tial men to secure for himself a secret position 
behind the throne, from which, without any 
department for himself, his unseen hand should 
direct all the departments, through a king who 
had no will and no fixed purpose except to re- 
ceive from Rome his directions and from the 
armies of Europe his defence. Rivalry, jeal- 
ousy, and the inability of Frenchmen to appre- 
ciate statesmanship, have been assigned as 
reasons for his failure. The explanation is not 
adequate ; for it is not true. Frenchmen are 
not wanting in magnanimity. Mirabeau him- 
self explained the cause of the difficulty, often 
saying : " Ah ! how the immorality of my youth 
injures the public weal." His conduct during 
the Revolution completes the explanation. His 
life, from beginning to end, is a significant 
illustration of the fact that character, such as 
Washington's or Hampden's, is more influential 
ven in popular assemblies than oratory and 
talent. Arthur Young says : " In every com- 
pany, of every rank, you hear of Count Mira- 
beau 's talents ; that he is one of the best pens 
in France, and the first orator ; and that he 
<3ould not carry, from confidence, six votes in 
the states." This explanation was satisfactory 
to Mirabeau's contemporaries. It has been 
generally accepted by eminent writers on the 
Revolution, from that day to our time. It is 
not accepted by Professor Von Hoist, who 
seems to think that the time has not yet come 
ior full justice to Mirabeau. 

It is claimed that the immorality of his youth 
was such as was common in that time ; but that, 
when he entered public life at the time of the 
Revolution, his ambition was aroused, he became 
a new man, and the immorality of his youth 
should not be counted against him. Unfor- 
tunately, venality, the vice of his public life, 
is one that is more destructive to the founda- 
tions of public welfare than all the vices of his 
youth. Mirabeau's failure to win the confi- 
dence of his contemporaries will not be under- 
stood when his vices in public and in private 
life shall have been forgotten. The account of 
Mirabeau's venality is given in the writings of 
La Marck with coloring as favorable as honest 
friendship could use. They knew each other 
prior to the Revolution. They were both in 
the National Assembly. Meeting in the As- 
sembly, Mirabeau made the first advances, ask- 
ing La Marck to sound the court, and saying 
to him : " Let them understand at the chateau 
that I am more disposed towards them than 
against them." In that interview, and in sub- 



sequent ones, the purpose of La Marck was 
formed. He says : " I wished to contribute to 
the preservation of the throne, as to the defence 
of the unhappy king who occupied it. To bring 
to the cause of the king Count Mirabeau, who 
seemed to be the most violent and the most dan- 
gerous enemy of the throne, to put him in the 
rank of its most powerful defenders, seemed to 
me to be an essential service to render." To 
effect this service La Marck had many inter- 
views with the queen, and, finally, one with 
both king and queen. " When the king en- 
tered," says La Marck, " without any preamble 
and with his usual brusqueness, he said, ' The 
queen has told you that I have decided to em- 
ploy Count Mirabeau, if you think it is in his 
intentions and in his power to be useful to me.' " 
After some suggestions by La Marck, to the 
effect that all the revolutionary chiefs might 
be induced to enter into the service of the king, 
the suggestions in relation to the other chiefs 
being ignored, the king said that what should 
be done with Mirabeau must be kept a profound 
secret from the ministers. It was then agreed 
that the king should pay the debts of Mirabeau, 
amounting to 208,000 francs, allow him 6000 
francs a month for his expenses, and should de- 
posit with La Marck the king's notes of France 
amounting to 1,000,000 francs, which should 
be delivered to Mirabeau at the close *of the 
Assembly, if, in the meantime, the king should 
be satisfied in relation to Mirabeau's fidelity. 
In addition to these gifts, it was afterwards 
agreed to allow three hundred francs a month 
to the copyist of Mirabeau, " to pay for his si- 
lence," as La Marck said. Mirabeau accepted 
these gifts gratefully, including the conditional 
promise as to the additional million francs 
which were to be given on Caesar's method : 
something down, and much more to follow. 
La Marck was repeatedly charged to keep the 
whole transaction in the profoundest secrecy. 
Secrecy and silence are the well-known covers 
to venality everywhere. 

Mirabeau's private agreement to enter into 
the service of the king was consummated about 
the tenth of May, 1790. Previous to that time, 
every door to a place in the ministry had been 
closed against him. " If I were asked," says 
Professor Von Hoist, "what chapter of his whole 
history redounds, upon the whole, the most to 
his honor, not only as a statesman but also as 
a man, I should unhesitatingly answer : that of 
his relations to the court." I am far from 
thinking that this is, or ever will be, the judg- 
ment of history. It was not even the judgment 



12 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. l r 



of Mirabeau. On the twenty-first of October, 
1789, when he might have reasonably consid- 
ered that a place in the ministry was open to 
him, he wrote to La Marck : " A great succour 
I cannot accept without a place which makes 
it legitimate." A pension for public service 
previously rendered is a badge of honor ; a pay- 
ment secretly bestowed for political services to 
be rendered, " without a place which renders it 
legitimate," was then, and is now, considered a 
badge of dishonor. It is to the credit of hu- 
man nature that the prejudice, vices, and ven- 
alities of Mirabeau account for his failure to 
gain the confidence of his contemporaries. But 
these are not all of Mirabeau. His nobler part 
will live. His fifty notes to the king contain 
the most valuable contribution to political 
science that has come down to us from the Rev- 
olution. In that view, and with the proper 
qualifications, his relations to the court will re- 
dound most to his honor as a statesman and as 
a man. 

Professor Von Hoist seems to undervalue 
the great qualities of Lafayette. " Not many 
persons," he says, " who have cut a prominent 
figure in great times have lost so much by hav- 
ing the search-light of critical history turned 
upon them as Lafayette." The conduct and 
character of Lafayette were well known long 
before any such search-light was discovered. 
However it may be elsewhere, it was known, at 
least in France and in the United States, that 
in a long life tried by many tests, the conduct 
of Lafayette was exceptionally consistent, and 
that it was uniformly governed, not by passion, 
but by principle. In all emergencies he dis- 
played the same high qualities. He was early 
trained in the school of experience, under Wash- 
ington, whose friendship and confidence he al- 
ways retained. From the time when he first 
decided to come to America, if the testimony 
of La Marck may be accepted, his whole after- 
conduct was impelled by a force of will that 
one rarely meets. 

His first experience led him to prefer con- 
stitutional liberty under a republic. In the 
France of that time, he agreed with almost all 
of the Revolutionary leaders that it was suffi- 
cient to secure constitutional liberty under a 
king. He and the other leaders failed to ar- 
rest the course of the Revolution at a point 
where nearly all of them wished it to stop. It 
is easier to break down a dam than to stay the 
consequent rush of waters. In the last period 
of Mirabeau's life, a small but determined party 
of men began to prepare for the second and 



more destructive Revolution. It was to that 
party that Mirabeau, when interrupted, shouted : 
" Silence aux trente voix ! " Lafayette, with 
dauntless courage, long continued to resist the 
influence of that party. When it had acquired 
control of the king, the Assembly, the munici- 
palities, the clubs, and the armies, and resist- 
ance was no longer possible, Lafayette honor- 
ably withdrew from the army he commanded. 
" From the fifth of October," says our author, 
" Lafayette was the most powerful man in the 
realm, not to do good, but to avert, as well as 
to bring about, some of the worst evils. There- 
fore one of the main points in Mirabeau's pro- 
gramme from that day on is to coax or to force 
him into an offensive and defensive alliance, or 
to break his power." The alternative is not 
correctly stated. Mirabeau, for several months, 
labored incessantly both to secure an alliance 
with the most powerful man in France, and at 
the same time to break him down. Lafayette 
had daily access to the king. ' Mirabeau had 
not. Under his secret " employment," he could 
only send his notes to the king, giving advice 
which was never followed. In half of these 
secret notes he assailed Lafayette with unscru- 
pulous malice. He carried on both purposes at 
the same time one openly, the other secretly. 
On the first of June, 1790, Mirabeau wrote 
to Lafayette : " Your great qualities have need 
of my impelling force ; my impelling force has 
need of your great qualities." On the same 
day, he sent his first note to the king, in which, 
through page after page, he employed his " im- 
pelling force " in unscrupulous detraction of 
Lafayette's " great qualities." He failed to 
break Lafayette ; and he failed, as he had failed 
with others, and for the same reason, to secure 
the coveted alliance. Lafayette did not know- 
all that is now known about the conduct of 
Mirabeau. He knew, however, enough, and 
therefore justly refused to take the preferred 
hand, as afterwards the Girondins refused to 
take the hand of Dan ton. The one, offered 
treacherously, was soiled with money ; the other, 
offered magnanimously, was stained with blood. 
Professor Von Hoist revives the stale charge 
relating to Lafayette's conduct on the fifth 
and sixth of October, 1789. He says of La- 
fayette : " As to the part he played on the fifth 
of October, he himself has always seen a halo 
around his head." And again : " Though it 
cannot be directly proved that Lafayette rather 
liked to be led to Versailles, circumstantial evi- 
dence renders it likely." When Lafayette was 
hunting down the promoters of that movement, 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



13 



it was Mirabeau who thought it necessary to 
explain to Lafayette that he [Mirabeau] had 
no part in it. When, afterwards, the charge 
was made against Lafayette, he gave a digni- 
fied explanation, refuting the slander. Who 
has a better claim to be favorably heard in ex- 
planation of his conduct, when assailed, than a 
man like Lafayette, who always stood erect, 
and who therefore can bear to have the search- 
light of history turned upon every part of his 
illustrious career ? Sainte-Beuve says : " All 
the reproaches against Lafayette in relation 
to the days of the twenty-second of July and 
the fifth and sixth of October seem to me to be 
abandoned or refuted." There never was a 
moment when Lafayette was not ready to risk 
his life, and, what was more to him than life, 
his deserved popularity, in the restraint of un- 
lawful violence ; nor when he failed in duty at 
the cost of principle. He was five years in the 
prisons of Austria. The doors of the dungeon 
at Olmutz were always open to him at any mo- 
ment when he should be ready to make the 
least denial of the political principles upon 
which his entire life was governed. In the 
treaty made after the victory over the Aus- 
trians at Campo-Formio, Napoleon inserted 
a stipulation securing to Lafayette his free- 
dom. In due time Lafayette returned to France. 
After thanking Napoleon for his liberty, he re- 
tired to his estates. He was offered many po- 
sitions under the government, and refused them 
all, saying to Napoleon : " The silence of my 
retreat is the maximum of my deference ; if 
Bonaparte wishes to serve liberty, I am devoted 
to him ; but I cannot approve of an arbitrary 
government, nor associate myself with it." He 
maintained the same attitude in subsequent con- 
versations with him. When some courtier said 
to Napoleon that Lafayette was talking against 
him, " Let that man alone," said Napoleon ; 
" he has said more to my face than he will ever 
say behind my back." 

It was no false idol that the fathers of our 
Republic set up in Lafayette ; and as long as 
pure character, consistent conduct, and noble 
sacrifice shall be admired, his memory, here, 

at least, will be honored. ^ T 

D. L. SHOREY. 



THE Congress of American Philologists, which has 
just completed a three days' session at Philadelphia, 
is the direct outcome of the Chicago Congress of 
1893. Besides the four societies represented at Chi- 
cago, this second Congress has included the American 
Oriental Society, the Society of Biblical Literature and 
Exegesis, and the Archaeological Institute of America. 



A NEW BOOK ox SHAKESPEARE.* 



" Will it do to say anything more about 
Chaucer ? " The question was put some time 
since by the late Professor of Belles Lettres at 
Harvard. He thought (very fortunately for 
us) that it would do. Probably many people 
put the same question concerning Shakespeare, 
whenever they see a new book of Shakespear- 
ian criticism. And yet it is fortunate for us 
that Mr. Wendell thought it would do to say 
something more about Shakespeare. A good 
many books serve as bricks with which people 
succeed in building up a solid wall between 
themselves and the object of their study. This 
book on Shakespeare serves a very different 
purpose. 

Mr. Wendell has tried, to use his own words, 
" to see Shakspere, so far as possible at this 
distance of time, as he saw himself." In this 
there seems at first nothing very out of the way, 
nothing which would mark a book out from 
many other studies of Shakespeare. But, if 
you think of it, the task is not at all easy. Of 
course there is now at hand much whereby one 
may arrange the matter of historical perspect- 
ive, but in this case that is the least difficulty. 
The real difficulty is that people have got into 
the way of regarding Shakespeare as a phe- 
nomenon so out of the ordinary course of things 
that they never really think seriously of seeing 
him as he saw himself. Most people, and most 
critics too, feel about Shakespeare as did that 
noted man who had the plays bound like a fam- 
ily Bible and lettered " The Inspired Book." 
He had a special table for it in the reception- 
room, with a marble top, I believe. The no- 
tion is fatal to the best criticism. It has usually 
been the order of the day to feel that if there 
were anything in the plays that we did not ad- 
mire or understand, it was our own fat-witted- 
ness that blinded us. Many people will dislike 
to give up this idea : it had, to say the least, 
the charm of simplicity a paramount excel- 
lence with most folks when ideas are in ques- 
tion. Mr. Wendell, however, is very modern. 
He handles " The Merchant of Venice " with 
no more reverence than if it were First Chron- 
icles. " As an artist," he remarks of it, " of 
course, Shakspere's task was to distract at- 
tention from the absurdity of his plot." Such 
boldness startles one. But after the first shock 
is over, it is found to be refreshing. There 
might be danger of running into mere imperti- 

* WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. By Barrett Wendell. New York 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 



14 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



nence. But Mr. Wendell probably found no 
especial need of guarding himself in this re- 
spect ; his book is modern, and scholarly too. 

To follow out his plan, Mr. Wendell keeps 
two ideas well in the mind of the reader. First, 
he never forgets that Shakespeare's plays were 
always produced for the pleasure of the au- 
dience of an Elizabethan theatre. That gives 
them an element which must be reckoned with, 
although it is circumstantial in character. Then, 
quite as important to realize, the man who suc- 
ceeded in pleasing the Elizabethans was a poet 
" of first-rate genius," a man who worked out 
his conceptions according to the different im- 
pulses of an emotional life and an artistic tem- 
perament. On these lines is the problem worked 
out ; and as a result we have a book which, 
while it is neither an exposition of the Shake- 
spearian theory on the conduct of life, nor a 
statement of the Shakespearian practice in 
blank verse, delineation of character, and devel- 
opment of plot, does give us a conception ( which 
we instinctively recognize as well founded) of 
the growth of the poet's genius. 

Such a book will of course be compared with 
the somewhat similar study of Mr. Dowden ; 
and it may at once be said that neither book 
loses by the comparison. Mr. Dowden's book 
was called " Shakspere : His Mind and Art," 
but (if one can for a moment make the separa- 
tion) it said most about the former subject. 
Mr. Wendell has more to say of the latter. In 
other words, while Mr. Dowden exhibits in a 
profoundly interesting way a development of 
thought and feeling, Mr. Wendell has succeeded 
rather better in showing the artistic character 
of that development. 

" That the development which we are trying to fol- 
low is rather artistic than personal, however, we cannot 
too strenuously keep in mind. The details of Shak- 
spere's private life, quite undiscoverable nowadays, are, 
after all, no one's business. For the rest, nobody fa- 
miliar with the literature and the stage of his time can 
very seriously believe that in writing his plays he gen- 
erally meant to be philosophical, ethical, didactic. Like 
any other playwright, he made plays for audiences. He 
differed from other playwrights chiefly in the fervid 
depth of his artistic nature." 

One need not go the whole length with Mr. 
Wendell and insist that the artistic side of the 
poet is the only one with which we have any 
concern. But it is undoubtedly a matter of 
absorbing interest. " Our business, after all," 
says Mr. Wendell, " is not to fathom the depths 
of Hamlet, but only to assure ourselves of Ham- 
let's relation to Shakspere's development as 
an artist." That makes very clear just what 



we may expect ; we may desire something be- 
sides, but we must acknowledge the immense 
value of this particular acquisition. Mr. Wen- 
dell leaves us in no doubt of his views upon 
certain possible additions. 

" The unanswerable question which that last sugges- 
tion raises, however, as to whether Beatrice and Cleo- 
patra be different portraits of the same living woman 
who inspired the Sonnets, is impertinent. The Shak- 
spere with whom we may legitimately deal is not the 
man, who has left no record of his actual life, but the 
artist, who has left the fullest record of his emotional 
experience. To search for the actual man is at once 
unbecoming and futile." 

It will probably occur to many that there is 
some middle ground between an aesthetic ap- 
preciation of Shakespeare's artistic nature and 
a prying curiosity into Shakespeare's personal 
affairs. To my mind, Mr. Dowden's book 
represents such a mean, for it seems to me to 
give us Shakespearian thought in a way, almost 
abstract, which is not exactly artistic nor per- 
sonal. 

But the subject of this book is Shakespeare 
as an artist. And, fortunately, Mr. Wendell 
has a very accurate power of appreciating the 
artistic nature. He has much that is very sug- 
gestive to say, in one place and another, as to 
what sort of man an artist is. " In an artist 
of whatever kind," he remarks, " a period of 
vigorous creative imagination declares itself 
after a fashion which people who are not of 
artistic temperament rarely understand." It is 
a pity, perhaps, but they do not. Mr. Wendell 
has a good deal to say which may be of help. 

It is unnecessary to try to convey in a few 
words the net result of such a book. Yet a 
single quotation will do something to show into 
what conception Mr. Wendell's method works 
itself out. 

" Quite apart from its lasting literary value, apart, 
too, from its unique personal quality, the work of Shak- 
spere has new interest to modern students as a complete 
individual example of how fine art emerges from an 
archaic convention, fuses imagination with growing sense 
of fact, and declines into a more mature convention where 
the sense of fact represses and finally stifles the force 
of creative imagination." 

There is a great deal more that one would 
like to say about the book. Its whole atmos- 
phere, its tone, is characteristic and agreeable ; 
its many bits of particular criticism are almost 
always put with a very nice touch. There may 
be a few whose ideas will be made no clearer 
by a comparison with the relations of Fanny 
Ellsler and the Due de Reichstadt, or even 
with the career of Louis Philippe's Due de 
Choiseul-Praslin. But these characters are, to 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



15 



tell the truth, kept far in the background and 
rarely intrude upon us. There are many charm- 
ing obiter dicta not the least of which is the 
remark that Portia is " an exquisite type of 
that unhappily rare kind of human being who 
is produced only by the union of high thinking 
and high living." 

Mr. Wendell has produced an excellent and 
thoroughly modern book on Shakespeare. And 
when we say it is modern, we mean, not that it 
is new-fangled, nor that it is questionable, nor 
that it is flippant. We mean that it enables 
us to enjoy Shakespeare in a way that was im- 
possible to our grandfathers and grandmothers. 
EDWARD E. HALE, JR. 



SOCIAL, PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.* 

The history of England is the history of 
European civilization, and in a sense the his- 
tory of humanity. Within the space of a thou- 
sand years her people have advanced from a 
condition of almost absolute barbarism to the 
front rank in culture and refinement. She has 
occupied this advanced position for several cen- 
turies. But in the thirteenth century England 
was far behind Spain, France, and the other con- 
tinental countries, in all those arts of life which 
go to make up a highly developed society. The 
bulk of her population still lived in mud huts, 
cultivated only small strips of land which were 
held under feudal tenure, knew little and cared 
less for the outside world, were scattered over 
a sparsely settled territory, and had little music, 
no art, and only the modicum of literature 
which was offered in church chronicles. To- 
day her people are better fed, better clothed, 
better housed, better educated, better governed, 
and enjoy more of the comforts of life, than 
those of any other European country. To un- 
derstand this progress, the causes underlying 
it and making it in a sense necessary, and the 
conditions rendering it possible, is to under- 
stand the law of social progress and gain the 
key to the history of the race. 

We are no longer in doubt as to what con- 
stitutes real progress. Recent investigations 
into the nature and laws of animal and plant 
life have given us a scientific basis for the com- 

* SOCIAL ENGLAND. A Record of the Progress of the Peo- 
ple in Religion, Laws, Arts, Industry, Commerce, Science, 
Literature, and Manners, from the Earliest Times to the Pres- 
ent Day. By Various Writers. Edited by H. D. Traill, D.C.L., 
sometime Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford. Volume I., 
From the Earliest Times to the Accession of Edward I. Vol- 
ume II., From the Accession of Edward I. to the Death of 
Henry VII. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



parison of institutions and societies which is 
both exact and clear. Whatever be the cause, 
progress is the process by which the relatively 
complex grows out of the relatively simple or- 
ganization ; it consists of a series of changes 
in the structure, functions, and organs of the 
unit. Progress is the passing from simple, in- 
coherent, indefinite homogeneity, to complex, 
coherent, definite heterogeneity. At one end 
of the story stand the organisms having few 
parts, loosely held together, and but slightly 
related, while at the other are found bodies 
.having many intimately connected organs which 
depend entirely on each other for the full per- 
formance of their several functions. The char- 
acteristics of the process are a specialization of 
function, an integration and differentiation of 
parts, and a consequent complexity of struct- 
ure. It is the peculiar merit of the work that 
has been undertaken by Mr. Traill and his co- 
laborers that the ideal set before them is the 
scientific explanation of England's progress, 
and the critical examination of the relation be- 
tween cause and effect in the several depart- 
ments of social life. They have undertaken 
to write English history on Darwinian lines ; 
forgetting dynastic struggle, court intrigue, 
diplomacy, and war, they have given the nar- 
rative of the material, moral, and intellectual 
progress of the people, and of the career of the 
English people as a society, " not as a Polity, 
nor as a State among States." It deals with 
the manners and customs of the succeeding 
periods, with ways of thinking and feeling, with 
the art of getting a living. 

The work is almost encyclopaedic in character, 
but is in no way a compilation. It is more nearly 
a series of short excellent treatises by eminent 
specialists on the various phases of social life : 
on trade and agriculture, art and architecture, 
on language and literature, public health, mor- 
als, manners, the development of jurisprudence, 
the church, the army, the navy, science, edu- 
cation, religion, and the action and reaction 
between these different elements of our civili- 
zation. 

It is a stupendous task, and one which in- 
creases in difficulty as the story advances, and 
the accumulating facts grow too various in 
character to be massed together without risk 
of confusion. 

" New activities arise which refuse to class them- 
selves under the old headings. Divisions of the subject 
throw off subdivisions, which themselves require later 
on to be further subdivided. In every department of 
our national life there is the same story of evolutionary 
growth continuous in some of them, intermittent in 



16 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



others, but unmistakable in all. Industries multiply 
and ramify; Commerce begets child after child; Art, 
however slowly in this country [England] as compared 
with others, diversifies its forms ; Learning breaks from 
its mediaeval tutelage and enters upon its world-wide 
patrimony; Literature, after achieving a poetic utterance 
the most noble to which man has ever attained, perfects 
a prose more powerful than that of any living compet- 
itor, and more flexible than all save one; and finally, 
Science, latest of birth, but most marvellous of growth, 
rises suddenly to towering stature, stretches forth its 
hundred hands of power, extending immeasurably the 
reach of human energies, and, through the reaction of 
a transformed external life upon man's inner nature, 
profoundly and irreversibly, if still to some extent ob- 
scurely, modifies the earthly destinies of the race." (P.. 
xvi.) 

What may be called the distribution of em- 
phasis thus becomes the greatest difficulty for 
the editor to overcome. It is therefore natural 
that just here the work should fall far short of 
the ideal. The various essays must inevitably 
differ widely in originality and in style, which 
is perhaps a happy incident of composite au- 
thorship. Some writers have assumed too much, 
while others have taken too little for granted, 
or have filled their pages with tedious quota- 
tions and long extracts from illustrative docu- 
ments instead of giving scientific conclusions 
based on a thorough study of the sources of 
historic information. Not infrequently a writer 
is guilty of speaking with that tone of authority 
which conveys the idea of absolute finality of 
judgment, while others leave their subject con- 
fessedly incomplete. All of these, however, are 
very minor defects when compared with the 
general result. 

Treating each department of social life in sev- 
eralty, it is true, has inevitably entailed a cer- 
tain amount of repetition ; but this need not have 
been allowed to be utterly superfluous, as is the 
reference to the " great discontent among the la- 
boring classes," on page 270 of Volume II., fol- 
lowing as it does an excellent account of this 
rebellion under Wat Tyler which is given by 
Mr. Corbett a few pages earlier. Still less was it 
necessary that the statement of fact by different 
writers in the same volume be contradictory, 
as are the references to the Black Death on 
pages 13 and 133 of the second volume. This 
is peculiarly unfortunate in view of the very 
contradictory opinions still held regarding even 
the general character of this fourteenth century 
and the importance of the Black Death as evi- 
dence of the preceding and as cause of the suc- 
ceeding condition of agriculture and of labor- 
ers. Was it in truth the golden age of the 
English laborer (Rogers), or a period of un- 
mitigated disaster, in which there were few 



years unmarked by famine and pestilence (Den- 
ton) ? The writer on Public Health, Mr. Creigh- 
ton, speaks with great vigor and acumen con- 
cerning the condition early in the century ; but 
unfortunately he is allowed, or has chosen to 
use, barely a page. 

It seems almost ungracious, however, thus to 
indicate possible faults and shortcomings, and 
apparently disparage a work of such marked 
excellence one which as a whole is so admir- 
ably well done, being conceived on the highest 
plan and executed with consummate skill. When 
completed, the work will include the results of 
the most advanced learning in English scientific 
circles regarding England's history. It will 
unquestionably be the best as well as the latest 
history, telling the whole story in the way best 
calculated to enforce the truth as to the causes 
of social progress and the real condition of ad- 
vancing civilization. The development of legal 
institutions and of jurisprudence is traced by 
the hand of a master ; the progressive expan- 
sion of industry and of commerce, the history 
of agriculture and its influence on the habits 
of the people, the action and reaction between 
the wants of the people and their economic 
movement, is sketched by economists who still 
utter the supply-and-demand shibboleth, but 
who nevertheless recognize the importance of 
" a living wage " and of the standard of liv- 
ing and social habits of the mass of the pop- 
ulation as affording the market which must in 
the long run determine the character of a coun- 
try's production ; the gradual spread of educa- 
tion from the few monks who alone knew how 
to write in Norman England, to the farthest 
corner of England and to the lowest level of 
English society, the advance in the arts and 
sciences, and the increase in enlightenment 
through university, grammar school, and vari- 
ous associations for the advancement of science, 
the growth of language and literature, each 
phase of the intellectual development is treated 
separately and with a view to show its connec- 
tion with and influence on " the progress of the 
people." Each chapter closes with an essay on 
manners and customs, which js apparently writ- 
ten by the editor, and seeks to give unity, con- 
tinuity, and logical completeness to the whole, 
and to show how industrial, intellectual, and 
religious forces register their influence in the 
social life of the people, in the dress, the 
amusements, the house and its decoration, meth- 
ods of eating and drinking, the literature and 
song, the every-day ways of living. 

The story begins with England before the 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



17 



English when the earliest settler, the dark 
Ibernian, had been overcome by the tall and 
fair-hued Celt, and this Aryan tribesman, 
" With his pride of race and his more advanced concep- 
tion of property as a subject not of common but of fam- 
ily ownership, had declined to the condition of a despised 
villager, so far as social and political importance were 
concerned; the tribal chief had grown into the tribal 
king; the free land of the tribe, alike with the common 
land of the villagers, had become tributary to him ; and 
the two communities, family and communistic, were 
alike his subjects. It was through the strife of tribal 
kings, with its consequence of the flight, the exile, and 
the appeal for Roman assistance of those who had been 
worsted in the struggle, that the way was opened for 
the conquest of Britain to the conquerors of Gaul. . . . 
Dim with the dust of centuries, yet still distinctly vis- 
ible in dialect and tradition, in boundary lines of shire 
and diocese, and in the strange survivals of prehistoric 
feud, the tribal divisions of Celtic England can still be 
traced, while the rule of the Roman has been forgotten, 
even where his villa and his storied gravestone remain." 
(I., xxii.-xxiii.) 

In the second volume the progress of events 
is traced down through the Middle Ages and 
into the beginnings of modern England, when 
the Church had passed its climax of prosperity 
and independence. 

" Henceforth it prepares its own downfall by an even 
closer connection with the royal power. That royal 
power itself was beginning to show the influence of 
those theories and those events which were soon to 
cover all Europe with absolutist sovereignties. The new 
commercial classes, in whose support this absolutism 
was to find its practical basis, begin to manifest them- 
selves. Most rapid change of all, the feudal baronage 
had been, even in the preceding century, transforming 
itself into a modern nobility, intriguing for places and 
pensions, instead of taking up arms for local independ- 
ence." (II., 277-278.) 

The all-important lesson taught by these vol- 
umes is that development has been continuous 
and that there have been 110 violent breaks in 
the narrative, each succeeding social stage grow- 
ing naturally out of the preceding conditions 
through the action of forces of which it is pos- 
sible to measure the power for good and evil. 
Even the Norman Conquest is no cataclasm. 
The break is more apparent than real. It is 
true " the central administration and the local 
government, temporal and spiritual, had been 
taken over by a new set of men better man- 
agers, keener, more unscrupulous, less drunken 
and quarrelsome, better trained, hardier, thrift- 
ier, more in sympathy with the general Euro- 
pean movements, more adventurous, more tem- 
perate." But it is equally true that the " Nor- 
man conqueror built upon the main lines of that 
civil organization which he found in existence 
at his coming, and widely as the ' elevation ' of 
the completed structure may have departed 



from the prospective ideal of the Saxon archi- 
tect, the ground plan remains his." 

Equally in evidence is the fact that it is im- 
possible to give definite boundary to the Mid- 
dle Ages. Commercial growth brings consti- 
tutional changes, and constitutional changes in 
turn favor commercial growth ; but in neither 
is there a sharp line between medisevalism and 
modern life. The reign of Henry VII. is a 
period of transition ; it is marked by new ideas 
and new influences. 

" But they are only as yet in germ. The printing- 
press is at work; but its first result is destructive, almost 
paralysing to literature. America is found, both South 
and North ; but the effect on English industry and com- 
merce is hardly marked until Elizabeth's reign. The 
new learning had made its way to Oxford with Colet 
and Erasmus; but no breath of hostility can yet be de- 
tected against Church dogmas." 

There is no sudden change, nor is the course 
of development a chapter of happy accidents. 
Each advance on social organization has its dis- 
tinct cause or set of causes, and telling the story 
of human progress is as definitely a science as 
is recounting changes in the physical structure 
of the earth, the movements of the heavenly 
bodies, or the way chemical forces combine to 
produce very unlike substances out of the same 
elements. It is a science, moreover, whose laws 
cannot be broken with impunity. Humanity 
is slow in learning the lesson, but even a hasty 
reading of these pages should convince pessi- 
mistic reformers that no scheme of social pro- 
gress is worth a moment's consideration which 
implies a sudden and radical regeneration of 
human nature, or which involves artificial ap- 
pliances outside the steady development of the 
wants and desires of mankind. Change is the 
law of life ; but it is change that is slow and 
gradual, and which comes practically through 
the almost unconscious action of forces lying 
deeply buried in human nature. 

ARTHUR B. WOODFORD. 



EDWIX BOOTH'S BETTERS. * 

When, a little time ago, Mr. William Win- 
ter's biography of Edwin Booth came into hand 
and was read with a grateful sense of its ade- 
quacy by the admirers and friends of the great 
actor, it was supposed no superior memorial of 
that troubled genius would likely be added to 
our literature. A tender intimacy of many 
years' duration between the two distinctly gifted 

* EDWIN BOOTH : Recollections by his daughter, Edwina 
Booth Grossman, and letters to her and his friends. New 
York : The Century Co. 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



men had qualified the critic to be the best proc- 
tor of the actor ; and the appreciative estimate 
of the professional achievements of the player 
was sweetened and enriched by a sympathetic 
knowledge of the man expressed in a tribute 
honorable alike to the memory of the dead and 
to the reputation of the living friend. 

But filial affection guiding the intelligence 
of an accomplished woman has done even more 
for the public's gratitude in withdrawing, gently, 
tenderly, and with touching simplicity, the veil 
of privacy that guarded the domestic and per- 
sonal life of Edwin Booth, for the first time 
permitting his countrymen to view this chief 
glory of the American stage in the light of a 
character so fine and a nature so earnest, un- 
selfish, and devout, that admiration of the 
genius must hereafter be associated with loving 
regard of the man, so famous and yet so little 
known for what he was in heart and soul. 

Mrs. Grossman's unaffectedly, almost art- 
lessly, written recollections of her father com- 
pose one of the most exquisitely beautiful and 
graciously impressive pictures of character to 
be found in literature ; and though there is but 
a detail here and there, though the few pages 
are mainly generalizations covering memories 
from the infancy to the mature womanhood of 
the writer, these, with the letters penned with 
no expectation that they would ever find their 
way to the printing press, must be accepted as 
a better and truer portraiture of the man than 
may be found in the most voluminous biograph- 
ical narrative. One yields so completely to 
the charm of Mrs. Grossman's candor of love 
and pride as to enter feelingly into the spirit 
and sentiment of her own mind, moved by her 
emotions, animated by her spirit of affection, 
until, reading here and there among the letters, 
one feels how precious a thing it was to be near 
to the heart and close in the life of such a man. 
It is a new understanding of Booth, an under- 
standing that gives new dignity and worth, and 
brings the reader nearer in sentiment to the 
actor whose work we have viewed in silent awe 
or approved in tumultuous applause, little think- 
ing how much of mildness, diffidence, sweetness 
and sadness of spirit lay below the noble forces 
expended in the creation of characters that 
ranged from the boisterous mirth of Petruchio 
to the sublime madness of Lear, and had in 
them all the passions of nature. We have 
known him in the craft, cunning, and knavery 
of lago ; in the woful melancholy and sombre 
philosophy of Hamlet ; in the frank, open but 
subtly abused honesty and generosity of Othello; 



in the ambition-corrupted nobility of Macbeth ; 
in the piteous bitterness of the laughing, rail- 
ing, mordant Bertruchio ; in the masterly 
counterpart of the age-broken and ingratitude- 
maddened Lear ; in the jocundity of gay and 
sportive roles ; we perhaps have known him in 
the easy moments when permitted friends have 
shared the pleasures of free and bantering, 
jest-enlivened conversation, with no more se- 
roius care than to keep cigars alight ; but here 
from his daughter's pen is a picture of him as 
few, indeed, have known him : 

" His nature was childlike, trustful, dependent, yet 
he was always my wise and loving counselor. How 
often would he quote the following adage to me : 
' If your lips you'd keep from slips, 

Of these five things beware : 
Of whom you speak, 
To whom you speak, 

And how, and when, and where.' 

He was essentially paternal and purely domestic; and 
these qualities were never tarnished by public favor or 
worldly praise. In the home he was at his best among his 
favorite pipes and books, and surrounded by his Lares and 
Penates. He loved personally to arrange the furnishings 
of his home, and carefully studied its merest details. He 
had a woman's taste, and his artistic touch was every- 
where evident. His delight in adorning the home never 
led him into extravagant display, for his tastes were al- 
ways simple, and he had no love for ostentation. . . . 
With boyish enthusiasm he enjoyed every detail of farm 
life, and loved nothing better than to watch the growth 
of the trees he himself had planted. His love of ani- 
mals amounted, at one time, almost to a passion. . . . 
His loyalty to his friends, his reverence and considera- 
tion for the old, no matter in what station of life, and his 
manifold charities to the poor and needy, were not the 
least among his many virtues. His modesty in bestow- 
ing favors extended itself even to the members of his 
family, and his beautiful gifts to me were offered with 
a tender, shy reserve. . . . His unselfish devotion to his 
mother and invalid sister were [sic] conspicuous among 
his domestic traits. He was a loyal and devoted husband, 
and on many occasions, after the play, I have seen him 
tenderly nurse his invalid wife (to whom he was mar- 
ried in 1869), thus losing his much-needed rest. When 
scandalous tongues attacked the privacy of his home, 
he refused to contradict the false reports circulated, and 
invariably replied to my earnest protestations, 'My 
daughter, all will yet be well.' His dignity toward his 
detractors won for him a host of defenders. My inti- 
mate knowledge of his heroic sacrifices, his early strug- 
gles and privations, his crushing sorrow and bitter dis- 
appointments, had made my father a hero in my eyes, 
and I admire his noble manhood even more ardently 
than I cherish his genius. . . . His veneration for all 
religious subjects, his belief in the immortal life, his 
practical uses of the teachings of Jesus, and his convic- 
tion that God's will is best, never forsook him even in 
the midst of his severest trials; and though often the 
victim of the basest deception from so-called friends, 
who, in not a few instances cruelly imposed upon his 
trustful, generous nature, he remained almost childlike 
in his belief in the integrity of others. ... I can- 
not speak without tears of the declining weeks of his 
beautiful life of his gentle patience during his last ill- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



19 



ness (of seven weeks' duration), and of the childlike 
beauty of his countenance when all furrows of care and 
sorrow were smoothed away, and ' nothing could touch 
him further.' His last coherent words were addressed 
to our little children, whom we had taken to his bedside 
two days before he died. My boy called gently, ' How 
are you, dear grandpa ? ' and the answer came loud and 
clear, in the familiar boyish way, ' How are you your- 
self, old fellow ? ' " 

Exquisitely beautiful as is this picture of 
manly nobility and spiritual sweetness of char- 
acter, it is not merely the partial and affection- 
colored view of an only and tenderly, fondly 
cherished daughter. There is in the goodly num- 
ber of letters, written to mirthful impulse, 
or with serious emotion, or in strangely mel- 
ancholy but never wholly despondent vein, 
through a period of thirty years, scarcely one 
that does not in its measure confirm, in its sen- 
timent, in its candor, in its ingenuous sincere 
tone, the truth of this ideal. But the picture 
would be incomplete without some associated 
touches from the life of the woman, love of whom 
gave lofty purpose to the soul of Booth, grief 
for whose untimely sudden death very nearly 
betrayed to irredeemable desolation the genius 
that is so lustrous a part of America's pride of 
intellectual, artistic achievement. Mary Dev- 
lin was the object of Booth's first impassioned, 
romantic, exalted love, a love that was only 
"this side idolatry." That she merited the ador- 
ation he gave to her is not to be questioned. 
Though she was no more than a girl when they 
were married, the dignity of her character, the 
generous quality of her nature, and the high di- 
rection of her exceptionally clear, pure, and 
lofty mind, fitted her perfectly to be the com- 
panion, comforter, guide, and sustaining in- 
spiration of a man whom the very nature of his 
genius made dependent upon some finer stim- 
ulus than his own too easily discouraged ambi- 
tion. What her influence upon him was, what 
herself must have been to him in the three 
swiftly speeding years of their blissful but earn- 
est union, this excerpt from one of her letters to 
him will sufficiently declare. It was written 
just before they were married, and is at once a 
hope for herself and a promise to him, both of 
which were happily fulfilled of time : 

" This morning in my walk, I was thinking of the be- 
ing God had given me to influence and cherish, for you 
have ever seemed to me like what Shelley says of him- 
self ' a phantom among men ' ' compauionless as the 
last fading storm,' and yet my spirit ever seems lighter 
and more joyous when with you. This I can account 
for only by believing that a mission has been given me 
to fulfil, and that I shall be rewarded by seeing you 
rise to be great and happy. 

" Ah ! the angels surely will rejoice in heaven when 



that is achieved. Edwin, I have never told you yet, 
have I, of all the odd thoughts I have had, and do have, 
about you ? Well, on some of the days to come, when 
I am influenced by your loved presence, and after the 
singing of some pretty song, perhaps I will tell you." 

Among all the letters written by Edwin 
Booth, none sets the man before us so clearly, 
so humanly, so compassionately, and yet so ad- 
mirably and lovably, as that of March 3, 1863, 
addressed to his friend, Captain Adam Badeau, 
beginning thus : 

" By the time this reaches you, you will perhaps have 
heard of the terrible blow I have received a blow 
which renders life aimless, hopeless, darker than it was 
before I caught the glimpse of heaven in true devotion 
to her, the sweetest being that made man's home a 
something to be loved. My heart is crushed, dryed up 
and desolate. I have no ambition now, no one to please, 
no one to cheer me. . . . You can feel my agony I 
know, and if while I was happy I failed to keep you 
advised of my whereabouts and doings, you see I think 
of you in my misery, and seek to pour out my flood of 
grief where I know it will not be despised. I should not 
complain even in my gulf of woe, for surely God is just, 
is good, is wiser than we, and nothing has ever so im- 
pressed me with the truth of this as Mollie's death. . . . 
They tell me that time and use will soften the blow, and 
I shall grow to forget her. God forbid ! My grief, keen 
as it is and crushing, is still sweet to me; for it is a part 
of her. . . . What can I do or look upon that will not 
remind me of her ? All things I loved or admired she 
took delight in; my acting was studied to please her, 
and after I left the theatre, and we were alone, her ad- 
vice was all I asked, all I valued. If she was pleased I 
was satisfied; if not, I felt a spur to prick me on to at- 
tain the point. . . . Doesn't it seem hard that one so 
young, so full of life, devotion, and promise should go 
so suddenly ? Would to God I were there with her. 
But I suppose that's wrong; I suppose I will be there 
shortly. . . . Madness would be a relief to me, and I 
have often thought that I stood very near to the brink 
of it. ... God bless you, Ad ! Be brave and struggle, 
but set not your heart on anything in this world. If 
good comes to you take it and enjoy it; but be ready al- 
ways to relinquish it without a groan." 

It is only during the period of his immoder- 
ate grief, the influence of which was never 
wholly cast off, that the letters are in gloomy, 
sombre vein. Knowing how much melancholy 
was by nature in the mood of Edwin Booth, one 
is surprised, indeed, by the frequency with which 
humor, drollery, and a boyishness of capering 
fancy, got into his letters. He had a keen sense 
of the ludicrous, and comical conceits crop up 
continuously, while the jaunty air with which 
he disposes of all sorts of friendly and even 
business interests informs one how charming, 
how delightful a companion he must have been 
in some snugly comfortable corner, with close, 
familiar friends about him, his cheerful pipe 
sending coils of gray and azure smoke to 
wreathe themselves lazily into quaint and del- 
icate fancies above his head. Averse to society, 



20 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1,. 



he loved his friends, and from the first of these 
letters written to his prattling baby girl in 
the style so well known of fond parents address- 
ing their tempered wisdom to infant minds 
to the last, written to the Shakespearian scholar, 
Mr. Horace Furness, whether the mood be grave 
or gay, the kindly, generous, loyal heart shines 
through, a temper wonderfully level with the 
spirit of charity that casts out malice. The let- 
ters indicate a man of taste, refinement, and 
artistic culture ; a mind above the gross de- 
mands of material success ; a soul that a trying, 
temptation-beset profession could not divert 
from its religious singleness ; a devotion to art ; 
sincerity of purpose ; and above all a spirit 

" that fortune's buffets and rewards 
Hast ta'en with equal thanks." 

These recollections and letters give us a wel- 
come addition to our knowledge of Edwin 
Booth, and one of inestimable value to theat- 
rical literature, besides being in themselves in- 
expressibly charming for an evening's reading 
and for the after solace of many a tedious hour 
when the times seem out of joint. They teach a 
great lesson of charity and forbearance ; and 
there are those whose mission it is to teach God's 
word, may learn something of benevolence, lov- 
ing kindness, and broad humanity, from the let- 
ters of our dead player. 

ELWYN A. BARRON. 



RECENT POLITICAL, DISCUSSIONS.* 

Professor Hoffmann's book on " The Sphere of 
the State " is brief and to the point. He sets out 
with the distinction between the State and its gov- 
ernment, and then, on that as a basis, proceeds to 
construct a body of political science. The constant 
application of the principles laid down by him to 

* THE SPHERE OF THE STATE ; or, The People as a Body 
Politic. By Frank Sargent Hoffman, A.M., Professor of 
Philosophy, Union College. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

THE RISE OF MODERN DEMOCRACY IN OLD AND NEW EN- 
GLAND. By Charles Borgeaud, Member of the Faculty of 
Law, Geneva. Translated by Mrs. Birkbeck Hill. New York : 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 

SOURCES OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
By C. Ellis Stevens, LL.D. New York : Macmillan & Co. 

SELECT STATUTES, and other Constitutional Documents, 
Illustrative of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Edited 
by G. W. Prothero, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. 
New York : Macmillan & Co. 

COMMON SENSE APPLIED TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE. By 
Mary Putnam- Jacobi, M.D. ("Questions of the Day" se- 
ries.) New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

PRIMARY ELECTIONS. By Daniel S. Remsen, of the New 
York Bar ( " Questions of the Day " series.) New York : G. 
P. Putnam's Sons. 

CANADIAN INDEPENDENCE, Annexation, and British Im- 
perial Federation. By James Douglas. (" Questions of the 
Day " series. ) New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



present-day problems is a noticeable feature of the 
work. Education, property, corporations, transpor- 
tation, taxation, money, criminals, pauperism, cities, 
the family, the church, international relations, 
these are the themes of successive chapters. The 
fundamental thesis of Professor Hoffman's political 
science is the absolute and indivisible sovereignty of 
the State. This is essentially the view taken by 
Burgess and others. It is undoubtedly correct, if 
by sovereignty one means sovereignty within the 
sphere of human law. But the last word has not 
yet been said on this vital topic. The broad and 
vigorous view which the author takes of current 
questions is interesting. He holds that the earth 
belongs to civilization, and that the organized State 
may very properly do for the welfare of its mem- 
bers many things besides police duty. This is very 
far from the once dominant doctrine of laissez faire 
a doctrine which meant in substance simply "every 
man for himself and the devil take the hindmost." 
The modern State is not organized socialism, but it 
is in fact highly socialistic. Perhaps it might bet- 
ter be called " the cooperative State," in contradis- 
tinction from the other form. And it is this kind 
of State which operates the common means of com- 
munication, which may operate means of transporta- 
tion, which provides education, cares for the poor 
and the insane, and in many other ways works for 
the general welfare. It is this kind of State, too,, 
which may logically join with others in the interest 
of humanity to compel a semi-barbarous State to de- 
cent government. Common humanity should, for 
example, lead the civilized world to put an end, 
once for all, to the hideous farce known as the gov- 
ernment of Turkey. A government which cannot 
or will not prevent such horrors as the Bulgarian 
outrages in 1876 and the Armenian horrors of 1894 
is clearly unfit to exist. In short, the cooperative 
State and cooperative States are the means which 
men are using to make life better worth living. They 
are not open to the reproach of paternalism. That 
was a phase of the personal autocracies which have 
now all but disappeared from the world. Coopera- 
tive democracies have taken their place. And it is 
this modern form of State which Mr. Hoffman pre- 
sents so cleverly. 

Mr. Charles Borgeaud, in his little study of " The 
Rise of Modern Democracy," tries to trace the ori- 
gin of that democratic movement which now dom- 
inates political society. He finds its germ in the 
Protestant Reformation, its early buds in the En- 
glish Puritan uprising of the seventeenth century. 
Mr. Borgeaud shows very clearly that the Re- 
formation in both its phases was essentially demo- 
cratic. This was not clearly seen by many of the 
leaders. Luther and Calvin were not democrats, 
either in religion or politics. The English eccle- 
siastical revolution under Henry and Edward and 
Elizabeth was very conservative, and was not in- 
tended by its promotors to pass beyond an effective 
control. It was only under John Knox in Scotland, 
and under the extreme Puritans who fought the 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



21 



Stuart kings, that a real democracy was apparent. 
In truth, the popes and the kings who assailed Pro- 
testantism on the continent, as aimed at the very 
thrones of pontiff and monarch, were more far-see- 
ing than the reformers themselves. And when James 
I. flouted the Puritan petitioners at Hampton Court, 
he realized acutely, as did few others, the extreme 
danger to his royal prerogative coming from these 
simple-minded and pious people. The logical mean- 
ing of the right of private judgment, on which were 
founded the religious revolutions of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, was certainly the sov- 
ereignty of the people over the State as well as over 
the Church. The American Constitution and the 
French Revolution are in a very true sense direct 
sequents of Luther's ninety-five theses at Wittenberg. 
Part of this, Mr. Borgeaud makes quite plain. He 
points out how democratic were the parliamentary 
army of Cromwell, and the Puritan settlers in Mass- 
achusetts and Connecticut and Rhode Island. And 
the settlement of those colonies was a part of the 
same movement as that which cost Charles I. his 
head. An apt illustration of these premature efforts 
at democratic reform in the State is the " Agree- 
ment of the People," which was proposed by a large 
body of the army, in 1647, as a settlement of the 
difficulties. The king was a captive, but was still 
king, the house of lords was yet a part of parlia- 
ment, and it seemed far from certain that the fruits 
of the wars would not be lost. The " Agreement " 
was in fact a sketch of a republican constitution for 
England. It contained such features as the adop- 
tion of a written constitution which should include 
a bill of rights and definite limitations on the pow- 
ers of parliament, abolition of king and lords, equal 
electoral districts, universal suffrage, and biennial 
parliaments. All this was in advance of the age. 
It took England forty years to reach the bill of 
rights, a half century to adopt triennial parliaments 
(soon changed at that), two centuries to compass 
electoral reforms, and king and lords are yet part of 
parliament. But the great features of the " Agree- 
ment" were in fact put into operation in the dem- 
ocratic American colonies, and finally embodied in 
the Constitution of the United States. So it is 
quite correct to say that the meeting of Cromwell's 
regiments in 1647, which voted the " Agreement," 
was really a preliminary caucus of which the Con- 
vention over which Washington presided in 1787 
did the finished work. And England is slowly com- 
ing to the methods of American democracy. Mr. 
Borgeaud is substantially right. Political democ- 
racy is a direct result of the overthrow of ecclesi- 
astical aristocracy. 

Dr. Ellis Stevens's work on the " Success of the 
Constitution of the United States " is devoted to the 
thesis of the English origin of the American Con- 
stitution. His task is not difficult to accomplish. 
The convention at Philadelphia did not evolve a 
frame of government from their own inner con- 
sciousness. They were a group of lawyers, judges, 
and statesmen, who knew quite clearly the defects 



of the Confederation, and used the material at hand 
in mending them. This material was the experi- 
ence of the several States, both as English colonies 
and as members of the Union, and the English sys- 
tem of government and law. With all these things 
the convention were quite familiar. They knew 
that the quarrel of the colonists with King George 
had been over what they deemed the essential rights 
of Englishmen. They were hardly likely to abandon 
these rights, or the accustomed means of guarding 
them, in the final structure of national government 
which was the outcome of the Revolution. And so 
it is not difficult to trace to an English origin, either 
directly or through the colonies, almost every clause 
of the Constitution. Incidentally, Mr. Stevens de- 
votes considerable space to exhibiting the weakness 
of the claims of Mr. Douglas Campbell in behalf 
of Dutch influence. Here again the author's task 
is not difficult. Mr. Campbell's book is rather in- 
teresting than conclusive. That there was some 
result on American institutions by contact with 
the Dutch is quite possible. But just how much, 
and just what that result was, it would not be easy 
to estimate. The most striking part of Mr. Stev- 
ens's book is that devoted to the Executive. Mr. 
Stevens brings out very clearly the really great 
power of the American President, and its quite di- 
rect derivation from the old form of English king- 
ship, as well as from the temporary revival of that 
form by George III. An extended footnote details 
an interview of the author with the late ex-Presi- 
dent Hayes, which gives an interesting view of 
American cabinet methods and of the very great ex- 
tent of executive powers, even as bearing on the ini- 
tiation and progress of legislation. The banking and 
currency measure now pending is a significant illus- 
tration. There is no doubt that Mr. Cleveland is in 
many ways a greater potentate than Queen Victoria. 
We are a composite nation, to be sure. But our 
political organization and legal methods, like our 
national language, are undoubtedly English. The 
types have been rather unkind to Mr. Stevens in a 
few instances. " Cobbit " for " Cobbett" on p. 144, 
"1737" for "1787 " on p. 146, and " Petition of 
Rights " for " Petition of Right" on p. 207, are 
cases in point. Otherwise the volume is a good ex- 
ample of bookmaking. 

Among the modern devices for putting the ma- 
terials of history within reach of scholars in general, 
that of making reprints of important documents is 
most valuable. Stubbs's " Select Charters " is price- 
less to students of Old and Middle English institu- 
tions. Mr. S. R. Gardiner's Selection of Docu- 
ments of the Puritan Revolution is also exceedingly 
useful. And now Mr. G. W. Prothero has filled the 
gap between them by a series of reprints from the 
reigns of Elizabeth and James I. The Act of Su- 
premacy, for instance, is printed in full. Other 
documents are abbreviated more or less. Besides 
statutes, there are well-chosen extracts from the pro- 
ceedings of parliament, including the famous speech 
of Peter Wentworth, for which that worthy wa 



22 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



committed to the Tower ; there are executive docu- 
ments illustrative of constitutional tendencies of the 
times, taken from Strype, Camden, et al.; there are 
not a few famous law cases reprinted Bates's, 
and the impeachment of Lord Bacon ; and there is 
a mass of ecclesiastical documents. The selections 
are made with discretion, and are carefully indexed. 
The book well illustrates the modern method of his- 
torical study. At one time, not so long ago, his- 
tory was merely a branch of literature. It was read 
largely as a portion of " polite letters," the main 
thing being literary style. To-day history is a branch 
of science. Literary finish is a desirable quality, 
but no more so than in a work on glaciers. The 
main thing is sound thought. And now no student 
is content to " read " history. He investigates. He 
wants the material from which a correct view of 
facts and their relations can be had. And he wants 
to work out this view for himself. In short, the 
modern student of history is quite like the intelli- 
gent reader of newspapers, who cares little for edi- 
torials, but wants all the news accurately reprinted. 
He can make his own comments. Mr. Prothero's 
book gives a photographic reproduction of history 
in the making of a most important epoch in the 
development of the English people. With Stubbs, 
Prothero, and Gardiner, one can study the England 
of Elizabeth and her pedantic Scotch cousin with 
some satisfaction. 

" Common Sense Applied to Woman Suffrage " 
is the title of a breezy little volume by Dr. Mary 
Putnam-Jacobi. The author is learned and lucid 
and trenchant. But beyond all, she is unconsciously 
and deliciously convincing of the essential likeness 
of men and women. Men are quite apt to write 
one-sidedly. We call this partisanship. If we think 
with the writer, we like it. If we think otherwise, 
we rail at it. If we try to be even-minded, we won- 
der why a book should not be a scholar's investiga- 
tion rather than an advocate's plea. But then we 
know better. Books are written for all manner of 
reasons, sometimes for no discoverable reason at 
all. And this book is quite as partisan as a polit- 
ical editorial written by a mere man. That Woman 
Suffrage is coming there can be little doubt. In- 
deed, it is already here in some form. But whether 
we are ready to go on opening the ballot unreservedly 
to indiscriminate classes, is not so sure. Because 
an illiterate and fat-witted man may vote, is hardly 
a sound reason for granting that privilege to the 
same grade of woman. After the war we armed 
the freedmen with the ballot, for their self-defence. 
The outcome is hardly an irrefragable argument for 
unlimited suffrage. But if the ignorant sea-island 
negro may vote, why should the alert modern col- 
lege woman be unenfranchised ? Why, indeed ? Still, 
why should we enfranchise the ignorant sea-island 
negro woman ? This is the case in a nutshell. And 
would not the champions of a sexless vote be more 
helpful towards the political regeneration of which 
they dream, if at the same time they worked towards 
an intelligent and a responsible vote? 



Mr. D. S. Remsen, of the New York bar, devotes 
his little book on " Primary Elections " to a discus- 
sion of party organization and its improvement. 
His idea is to guard primary elections by an elab- 
orate system of provisions, substantially equivalent 
to an Australian ballot law with minority represen- 
tation. The main objection to his scheme is its 
complexity. Our whole body of democratic insti- 
tutions is tending to become a mechanism so vast and 
complicated that it may in the end require a tech- 
nical education to take any share in it. It is said 
that the President of the late New York State Con- 
stitutional Convention was unable to mark his vote 
properly at the recent election. We are trying to 
remedy the evils of universal suffrage by ingenious 
self-acting devices. Perhaps we may learn in time 
some simple method which will do quite as well. 
Meanwhile, let us be rather slow in adding more 
cogs and wheels. 

Mr. James Douglas discusses " Canadian Inde- 
pendence, Imperial Federation, and Annexation," 
from a Canadian point of view. He argues that 
neither Canada nor the United States would have 
much to gain from a political union, while each 
would have not a little to lose. Mr. Douglas is 
probably right. The idea of uniting in one great 
republic all America north of Mexico is one that 
tickles the fancy. But there are elements in the 
problem which cannot be disregarded, and which at 
least admonish to make haste slowly. Certainly the 
status of the French in Canada is unlike anything 
with which we have to deal, and one which would 
be peculiarly annoying in our system. It is bad 
enough for us to be asked to make a state out of 
the Spanish peons in New Mexico. But the State 
of Quebec would hold such views of the relations of 
Church and State as would hardly accord with Amer- 
ican ideas. We don't need Canada just now. 

HARRY PRATT JUDSON. 



BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 



Memorials of 
St. James's 
Palace. 



The distinctive merits of first-rate 
English book-making are well exem- 
plified in two soberly elegant octavo 
volumes from the press of Messrs. Longmans, Green, 
& Co., entitled " Memorials of St. James's Palace." 
The author, the Rev. Edgar Sheppard, Sub-Dean of 
the Chapels Royal, has spent several laborious years 
in the compilation of his work, pursuing his re- 
searches among the records of more or less remote 
royalty with a pious enthusiasm and a reverential 
sense of the semi-sacredness of his theme not very 
intelligible to the American mind, perhaps, but 
nevertheless interesting and instructive in its pres- 
ent results. Strange to say, in this age of never 
ending, ever multiplying books, the story of the 
whilom home of England's kings and queens, and 
the constituted centre of her court pageant and cere- 
monial, has never before been told in continuous 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



23 



detail. Yet from time immemorial the Palace of St. 
James's has been the cynosure of loyal British eyes, 
and its name has long been a potent one to conjure 
with in continental diplomatic circles. Scarcely a 
chamber, hall, or corridor in the venerable pile but 
has its curious and interesting personal or historical 
association. It contains, for instance, the room, of 
sombre memory to all leal Jacobitical souls, where 
Charles I. slept away his last allotted hours beside 
the faithful Herbert, and whence he passed, on that 
fatal frosty morning, ominous in the annals of mon- 
archy, to the scaffold at Whitehall. But St. James's 
record (unlike that of grim Holyrood) is joyous 
rather than tragic mainly the chronicle of royal 
births, baptisms, and marriages, of shining court 
fetes and formalities, the whole pleasantly seasoned 
with a thousand and one odds and ends of piquant 
Walpolian chat and personalia. Into these and more 
important matters our author has gone exhaustively 
and enthusiastically, leaving no documentary stone 
unturned, and tracing the story of the Palace and 
its associations and regulations from the founding 
(before A.D. 1100) of its predecessor, a lepers' hos- 
pital (''spittle for mayden lepers," old Howel calls 
it) dedicated to St. James the Less, down to mod- 
ern times. Pictorially, the work is a notable one. 
There are eight full-page copper plates, mostly por- 
traits, besides a great number of full-page and text 
illustrations. Many of these are from rare originals 
in the Royal collections, and all are well chosen and 
germane to the text. 



More of the 
writings of 
Jefferson, 



The fourth volume of Mr. Paul Lei- 
cester Ford's collection of the Writ- 
ings of Thomas Jefferson (Putnam) 
covers the period from 1784 to 1787. Mr. Jeffer- 
son as the representative in Paris of the new Re- 
public is an interesting figure. He was in a society 
thoroughly congenial to him, which he thought the 
most spirited, the most cultivated, and the most en- 
tertaining in the world. He had a penchant for spec- 
ulation, and Paris was the favorite resort of philos- 
ophers who had learned to respect and love one 
great American, Franklin, and who were delighted 
to add another American to their circle. If Jeffer- 
son lacked the originality, profundity, and wit of 
Franklin, his suggestiveness and enthusiasm suited 
the French temperament of the day, and kept alive 
the popular interest in the experiment in govern- 
ment across the Atlantic. Jefferson's letters, whether 
written to ladies, men of letters, or statesmen, have 
a grace and charm suited to any age. He never 
lost an opportunity to extend the information about 
his own country, and to commend the virtues and 
happiness of his fellow countrymen as worthy of 
imitation. He was industrious in acquiring infor- 
mation as to new inventions and improvements in 
agriculture, which he communicated to his corre- 
spondents in the new world. Thus, we find him 
writing to Edward Rutledge, Paris, July 14, 1787 : 
" I was glad to find that the adoption of your rice 
to this market was considered worth attention, as I 



had supposed it. I set out from hence impressed 
with the idea the rice dealers here had given me, that 
the difference between your rice and that of Pied- 
mont proceeded from a difference in the machine 
for cleaning it. At Marseilles I hoped to know 
what the Piedmont machine was; but I could find 
nobody who knew anything of it. I determined 
therefore to sift the matter to the bottom by cross- 
ing the Alps into the rice country. I found the ma- 
chine exactly such a one as you had described to 
me in Congress in the year 1775. There was but 
one conclusion to be drawn, to-wit, that the rice was 
of a different species, and I determined to take 
enough to put you in seed." This helpfulness was 
the best service Jefferson could render his country- 
men at that time, and it shows the benevolent side 
of his character. 

English-German About a y ear a g Professor Victor 

Comparative Henry of the University of Paris 

Grammar. published his " Precis de Grammaire 

Compare'e de 1'Anglais et de PAllemand," and re- 
cently his own translation has appeared under the 
title " Comparative Grammar of English and Ger- 
man" (Macmillan). The book, as the preface 
points out, is intended to introduce^ the comparative 
method to students having some knowledge of both 
languages, though for the English reader it will be 
intelligible after he has mastered the general out- 
lines of the grammatical structure of German. The 
author does not presuppose a knowledge of either 
Sanskrit or Greek, but deals with the subject simply 
from the Germanic side. The book includes a list 
of about forty of the most essential works on Ger- 
manic philology, and a short introduction on the 
classification and relation of the Germanic languages 
and dialects. The body of the work is divided into 
four parts, treating respectively Sounds, Words, 
Declension, and Conjugation. In the first division 
a brief survey of the elements of physiological pho- 
netics is followed by a study in which the vowels 
are traced back, by the inductive method, to their 
common prehistoric form. In a similar manner the 
laws of consonantal change are discussed. The 
treatment, though brief, is clear, and affords the 
beginner a presentation of the subject that is easily 
comprehended. The accepted results of recent Ger- 
man investigation are stated in such a way that the 
English-speaking student will find it advantageous 
to read what Professor Henry has to say on the 
subject of Phonetics before taking up a work like 
Sievers's Grundztige. The chapter, or rather section, 
on Words deals with the subject of derivation, and 
affords a systematic discussion of a subject upon 
which courses of lectures are frequently given at 
German universities, but upon which the literature 
that is useful to the beginner is meagre. Independ- 
ent of its scientific value, it affords the student an 
opportunity to enlarge and strengthen his German 
vocabulary ; for it exhibits clearly, and in a manner 
easily remembered, some of the most important 
points of agreement and difference between English 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



and German words. The two following sections deal 
with the inflections, and show the essentially Ger- 
manic structure of the English. The book concludes 
with an excellent index of English and of German 
words, the former containing some nine hundred 
entries and the latter a rather larger number. Va- 
rious errors in the French edition have been cor- 
rected. The work is satisfactorily printed, and the 
English is surprisingly idiomatic and accurate. All 
things considered, the work is an able and valuable 
one, and is unrivalled in English. 

The fourth volume of the " Journal 
Snake Dance o f American Ethnology and Archae- 

of the Indians. \ 

ology (Houghton) continues the re- 
cords of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological 
Expedition, and is a worthy successor to the previous 
volumes. It is dedicated "to the memory of Mrs. 
Mary Hemenway": a reminder of the loss to the 
world of a noble-hearted woman, liberal in her in- 
terested helpfulness of scientific work in America. 
Dr. Fewkes is the author of the volume, in the pre- 
paration of which he was assisted by Mr. Owens and 
Mr. Stephen. The chief author, deeply interested 
as he is in the comparative study of American In- 
dian Ceremonials, must have felt a special satisfac- 
tion in preparing this description of the famous 
Snake Dance of the Mokis. The ceremony, which 
is celebrated but once in two years at any one pue- 
blo, was observed by Dr. Fewkes at Walpi in 1891 
and 1893. The account given relates chiefly to the 
observance of 1891, but is pieced out here and there 
with the later notes. A careful description of each 
stage of the nine days' ceremony is presented ; uten- 
-sils, dress, gestures, songs, are minutely detailed ; 
illustrations help to clearness of understanding. No 
attempt is made to explain the significance of the 
ceremony, but the myth dramatized at one part of 
the performance is presented. This snake dance, in 
which living rattlesnakes are carried writhing in the 
mouths of the performers, has been for years a favor- 
ite subject with newspaper writers. But although 
some good material notably Captain Bourke's 
book has been published, students will hail this 
carefully detailed account as perhaps the most valu- 
able contribution to the subject yet made. 



The living 
composers 
of Germany, 



The excellent series of " Masters of 
Contemporary Music " (imported by 
Scribner) has a new volume devoted 
to the living composers of Germany, written by Mr. 
J. A. Fuller Maitland. A volume dealing with such 
names as Brahms, Bruch, Goldmark, Joachim, and 
Clara Schumann, has a field of great interest, even 
though it be true, as the author thinks, that " the 
tide of music which for so many years has favored 
Germany above all other nations seems almost at 
the ebb, at last." The enormous influence of Wag- 
ner upon the musical art of this century has in some 
ways repressed rather than stimulated the produc- 
tivity of his contemporaries in the same sphere of 
production ; German opera has indeed been marked 



by few works that can be called " epoch-making." 
One living German composer, however, must be 
accorded a place among the immortals, Johannes 
Brahms, the defender of musical orthodoxy against 
the tendencies of the "music of the future." In 
him no quality of greatness is lacking. His ideas 
are marked by grandeur, wealth, and originality ; 
he uses the old forms with ease and power, or devel- 
ops them into new organisms, full of suggestion and 
opportunity for his successors ; the greatest of his 
works are marked both by deep expression and ex- 
quisite beauty, and none of his writings are without 
signs of genius. Brahms's principal works are dis- 
cussed and analyzed by Mr. Maitland with great 
intelligence and sympathy. The portraits and bib- 
liography connected with each sketch are valuable 
features of the volume. 



"Prose 
Fancies. 



Mr. Le Gallienne's book of " Prose 
Fancies " ( Putnam) is easy reading 
and gives the reader many pleasant 
moments. It is a pleasure not unmixed, for the 
good and the mediocre more than once join hands 
across the pages. If one could omit an unnecessary 
third or half of the volume he would have left a small 
handful of sketches whose charm is real. Mr. Le 
Gallienne, as one might surmise from the fine por- 
trait that faces the title-page, possesses a delicate 
fancy and clear insight. He is at his best, in this vol- 
ume, when he writes of serious things seen in the garb 
of graceful metaphor. His best mood is romantic, 
and when writing in that mood he produces some- 
thing that has the flavor of poetry and the outward 
form of art. Sometimes he turns out a sentence 
that penetrates quite through the surface ; as when 
he speaks of " that delicate instinct for proportion, 
which is one of the most precious attributes of what 
we call a gentleman." Humor he has, too, which is 
pleasantest when it skims lightly over a subject; 
the avowedly humorous pieces in the book smack- 
ing often of hack-work. The book has no one 
theme : the five and twenty sketches are unrelated, 
and range from facetious satire to thoughtful mus- 
ing on the Ewigiveibliche. If a common aim may 
be found, it is that the various papers protest against 
shams and unrealities. 



Repetitions and The many who feel that the more 
parallelisms in subtle effects of verse structure are 
English wrse. lef t un t ou ched by the ordinary met- 
rical analysis will open with interest a little volume 
by Professor C. Alphonso Smith, entitled " Repeti- 
tions and Parallelisms in English Verse " (Univer- 
sity Publishing Company). These terms were used 
by Longfellow in writing of the characteristics of 
the verse (imitated from the Finnish) in his " Hia- 
watha "; but it is in Poe and Swinburne that the 
wonderful poetical capabilities of repetition and par- 
allelism appear in their full development. Professor 
Smith has traced the employment of these devices 
from the early ballads, through Coleridge, to Poe ; 
and from Poe, through Baudelaire, to Swinburne. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



25 



With an ear sensitive to catch the most delicate ef- 
fect, he at times, perhaps, tries to point out har- 
monies that do not exist ; but the reader will thank 
him for bringing out some hidden beauties that may 
have hitherto escaped him. No attempt is made to 
give a psychological explanation of the effects. 

Historical studies If Mr " CharleS Sea1 ' 8 Baldwin's In- 

of the English flections and Syntax of the Morte 
language. D' Arthur " is an earnest of what may 

be expected from Messrs. Ginn & Co.'s plan of co- 
operation with scholars in publishing works of special 
rather than of general interest, the publishers de- 
serve for this plan the thanks of the learned world. 
Mr. Baldwin's book is a real contribution to the 
history of the English language, giving a clear state- 
ment, with copious and even exhaustive exemplifi- 
cation, of the main features of the language as fixed 
for the nonce in the usage of Malory. The sections 
treating of the verb ablaut, and of prepositions, are 
especially good. The faults of the book are not se- 
rious : the index should be fuller ; much might fitly 
have been treated here that has been left, presum- 
ably, to lexicography. The author's commendable 
intention of editing selections from the " Morte 
D' Arthur " for school use will, when carried out, 
increase greatly the value of the present work. 

Mr. William Blake's "The Cross, 
The Cross as a Ancient and Modern " (Randolph) 

religious symbol. , . .... . ' 

gives much interesting information 
regarding the cross as a religious symbol. Part L, 
" The Cross in the Orient," shows that it was used 
among the Early Aryans, the old Egyptians, Baby- 
lonians, Greeks, Scandinavians, and other pre-Chris- 
tian peoples. The various forms svastika, tau, 
etc., are mentioned, and their meanings suggested. 
The Christian cross, and its variations in art, her- 
aldry, and architecture, are briefly considered. Part 
II., " The Cross in the Occident," presents the evi- 
dence regarding this symbol among North Amer- 
ican tribes before white settlement. The crosses of 
Mexico, of the Mississippi Valley Mound-building 
tribes, etc., are described. The style of the work is 
simple and readable, and the many illustrations 
more than a hundred add to the value of the book. 



Stratford 



" Shakespeare's Stratford " (Scrib- 
ner) is a thin volume of wood-cuts 
and pictured. and descriptive letter-press of which 

Mr. Hallsworth Waite is the draughtsman and au- 
thor. The writing is interesting, and many of the 
sketches are decidedly good. Stratford and vicin- 
ity is the field of the artist's pilgrimage, and the 
book records his impressions in simple prose and un- 
affected drawing. The eye for the picturesque is 
manifest, and if the sixty or more of illustrations 
never rise to brilliancy, they are never less than 
worthy of their theme. The book is a pleasant 
" souvenir volume " to the Stratford visitor, and a 
tantalizing glimpse of Shakespeare's town and coun- 
try to the stay-at-home reader of the plays. 



"Character Studies" (Whittaker), 
Character studies b Mr Frederick Saunders, the ven- 

of literary folk. J , . . . 

erable Astor librarian, is a volume 
containing pleasant and unassuming sketches of six 
distinguished literary persons whom it has been the 
author's good fortune to meet or to know. Edward 
Irving, Mrs. Jameson, Bryant, Longfellow, Wash- 
ington Irving, and Joseph Green Coggswell are the 
six, and the distinctive quality of their personalities 
is set forth in these wide-margined pages. The lit- 
erary criticism is genial rather than acute, the au- 
thor's admiration cleaving first of all to those traits 
that go to make up manhood. The first word of 
the title is thus to be taken in its moral signification, 
and its promise is adequately fulfilled in a book 
that is, in the pleasanter sense of a much abused 
word, instructive. 



BRIEFER MENTION. 

A volume of " Selections from the Poems of Arthur 
Hugh Clough " (Macmillan) has been added to the 
" Golden Treasury " series. " The Bothie of Tober-na- 
vuolich " fills the first half of the pretty little volume ; 
selections from " Dipsychus "and " Amours de Voyage," 
with a few miscellaneous pieces, make up the second 
half. " Mari Magno " is not represented. The best of 
Clough is between these covers, and we fancy that pos- 
terity will still further sift his slender product, and 
really treasure not more than a score of pages. 

Miss Frances E. Lord, of Wellesley College, has done 
a simple but much-needed piece of work in her little 
book on "The Roman Pronunciation of Latin" (Ginn). 
The work consists of two parts, " Why We Use It " and 
" How to Use It." In the former we have collected the 
evidence upon which our knowledge of the pronunciation 
is based; in the latter we have a number of helpful sug- 
gestions to teachers. There are many thousands of sec- 
ondary school and college teachers in this country who 
need just such a book as this, both for help in their daily 
work, and for the confuting of those uninformed per- 
sons (still found here and there) who imagine (and say) 
that we do not really know how Cicero and Quintilian 
pronounced their native speech. 

Dr. George Hempl, of the University of Michigan, 
deserves the thanks of all teachers of English for his 
admirable brochure on " Chaucer's Pronunciation and 
the Spelling of the Ellesmere MS." (Heath) . The pam- 
phlet is just what is needed by school and college teach- 
ers. It is better than Professor Skeat's introduction to 
" The Man of Lawe's Tale," and the phonetic basis of 
its exposition is strictly scientific. The author recom- 
mends its use in connection with Dr. Sweet's " Second 
Middle-English Primer," to be followed by the Morris- 
Skeat edition of the " Prologue " and " Knighte's Tale." 

We had hoped to find space for a notice of the Hon. 
William Warren Vernon's " Readings on the Inferno of 
Dante " (Macmillan) adequate to the great importance 
of the work, but a brief description must suffice. It is 
similar in plan to the companion work on the " Purga- 
torio," of which a second edition is promised. Text, 
translation, and commentary run along together, filling 
the thirteen hundred pages of two thick volumes. Al- 
though the " Readings " are said to be " chiefly based 
on the Commentary of Benvenuto da Imola," they are 



26 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



really based upon the whole range of Dante literature, 
and if the student can have but one work of general 
criticism and exposition, this is decidedly the work that 
he must get. There is an introduction by the Rev. Ed- 
ward Moore. 

Commander Charles N. Robinson, R.N., has prepared 
a popular account of " The British Fleet " (Macmillan), 
which describes in compact form, with many curious and 
instructive cuts and plates, " the growth, achievements, 
and duties of the Navy of the Empire." The work has 
four sections, devoted, respectively, to the growth and 
history of the Royal Navy, its administration, its mate- 
rial, and its personnel. There is a good index, and an 
interesting appendix upon the paintings, drawings, and 
prints that have been reproduced for purposes of illus- 
tration. In spite of the many earlier books upon this 
subject, the present volume really seems to occupy a 
place hardly filled before. 

Dr. Norman Kerr's " Inebriety or Narcomania " (Tait) 
appears in a new and greatly enlarged edition. The au- 
thor's experience in the treatment of inebriates has made 
him one of the foremost authorities upon the subject of 
this book, and we need hardly add that he handles it in a 
thoroughly scientific way. He contends strongly that 
alcoholism and the allied forms of mania are diseases 
and should be treated as such. He gives a great num- 
ber of cases from his own exceptional experience to es- 
tablish this assertion, and presents also the treatment 
which he has found to be efficacious. Dr. Kerr is an 
attractive writer, and by avoiding the use of technical- 
ities he has produced a book which all classes can read 
intelligently. 

The usefulness of William Ramsay's " Manual of Ro- 
man Antiquities " has been amply tested by the expe- 
rience of over forty years. A fifteenth edition now ap- 
pears, revised and partly rewritten by Signor Rodolfo 
Lanciani, whose name is a sufficient guarantee that the 
work has been brought down to the date of the most 
recent excavations. The work, which is imported by 
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, is a substantial volume 
of nearly six hundred pages, illustrated with woodcuts 
and full-page photogravure* plates. 

The late Dr. John Bradshaw was the compiler of " A 
Concordance to the Poetical Works of John Milton " 
(Macmillan) now published, and perhaps more needed 
than a concordance of any other English poet yet un- 
provided with such apparatus. The earlier works of 
Todd, Prendergast, and Cleveland are manifestly inad- 
equate, and students will be thankful for this completer 
performance of the task. Dr. Bradshaw, who died a 
year ago, was the editor of Milton in the new " Aldine " 
series. The present volume contains four hundred dou- 
ble-columned pages. 

" Preparatory Physics " (Longmans), by Mr. Will- 
iam J. Hopkins, is a short laboratory course, mainly in 
mechanics, for schools of secondary grade. Mr. H. 
N. Chute's " Physical Laboratory Manual " (Heath) is 
a similar text-book, possibly a trifle more elementary, 
and undoubtedly more attractive in arrangement and 
presentation. Mr. J. Edward Taylor's " Theoretical 
Mechanics Fluids" (Longmans) is a small treatise 
especially devised for the unhappy English youth who 
are cramming for their examinations. The method is 
totally unlike that of the book just before mentioned. 

" An Elementary History of Art " (Imported by 
Scribner), by Mrs. Arthur Bell (" N. D'Anvers ") has 
long been a favorite among popular manuals. It now 



reappears in a fourth edition, carefully revised by the 
author. The work is used in England as a text-book 
in civil service examinations, a fact which testifies to its 
excellence. It attempts to cover the whole field archi- 
tecture, sculpture, and painting, is amply though not 
very satisfactorily illustrated, is well provided with in- 
dexes and glossaries, and its nearly six hundred pages 
are stoutly bound in half-leather. 

A group of recent publications for students and teach- 
ers of Latin, published by Messrs. Ginn & Co., com- 
prises the following books: "The First Latin Book," 
by Messrs. W. C. Collar and M. G. Daniel], of the Bos- 
ton schools; "Latin at Sight," by Mr. Edwin Post, a 
book which teachers ought to find particularly useful; 
an edition of " The Odes and Epodes of Horace," an- 
notated by Professor Clement Lawrence Smith; and 
" An Introduction to the Verse of Terrence," by Dr. 
H. W. Hayley. We may mention in this connection 
Mr. H. W. Auden's translation, from the sixth German 
edition, of Herr C. Meissner's " Latin Phrase Book " 
(Macmillan). 

The series of " Contributions to American Educa- 
tional History," edited for the Bureau of Education by 
Professor Herbert B. Adams, has just been augmented 
by four volumes of great value. They deal, respect- 
ively, with the history of education in Connecticut and 
Delaware, and of higher education in Iowa and Tennes- 
see. Each of these works is the study of a careful 
specialist, and treats exhaustively of its subject. When 
such a work shall have been done for every state in 
the Union, the historian of education in this country 
will have at hand something like an adequate collection 
of materials for his work, and it will be possible to pre- 
pare a general account of the subject with some claims 
to completeness. 

" A History of Our Own Times," by Mr. Justin Mc- 
Carthy, has been a very popular book ever since its ap- 
pearance ten or more years ago. The popularity is, on 
the whole, deserved, in spite of the Irish bias and jour- 
nalistic method of the writer, for nowhere else is so 
readable a summary of the Victorian period to be found. 
We now welcome a reissue of the work (Lovell),made 
more serviceable than ever by an extension from 1880 
to 1894, the work of Mr. G. Mercer Adam. The new 
edition is in two volumes, with a new index and some 
thirty portraits. It is also moderate in price. 

"From Monkey to Man; or, Society in the Tertiary 
Age " (Dibble) is the title of a romance of our remote 
ancestors, at the time when they were abandoning their 
earlier arboreal habit, and had discovered that two legs 
are better than four. Among other things, the book 
tells of " the great expedition from Cocoanut Hill and 
the wars in Alligator Swamp." Mr. Austin Bierbower 
is the author of this fanciful production, and Mr. H. R. 
Heaton has provided it with illustrations. There is not 
a little humor in the development of the plot, and we 
come now and then upon a touch obviously satirical of 
intent. 

" Stories from English History " (Macmillan), from 
Julius Csesar to the Black Prince, is well described by 
its title, the earlier sketches being given in the form of 
a dialogue, while those of a later period are plain tales. 
The author, the Rev. A. J. Church, M.A., has included 
both legend and fact; and though the stories are neces- 
sarily sketchy, they are as satisfactory as their extent 
permits. The illustrations are reproductions of ancient 
sculptures and engravings. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



27 



YORK TOPICS. 

New York, December 25, 1894. 

Literary movements and schools arise, reach their cul- 
mination, and decline, with such rapidity, nowadays, 
that it is a question whether the well-worn phrase, fin- 
de-siecle, should not be altered to apply to the close of 
each succeeding year. It was one B. Franklin, I be- 
lieve, a printer, who preached that immortal sermon, 
" The Ephemera," using for his mouthpiece the insect 
to whom the sum total of existence was compressed 
within a single day. And B. Franklin's typographical 
successor, Mr. T. DeVinne, might well preach another 
such sermon, based on observation of " the feeble fantasts 
and realists of the day," as they are styled by Mr. Whit- 
ing of the Springfield " Republican." Well, the real- 
ists have had their day or so at least Mr. Thayer de- 
clares in " The Forum," the fantasts are passing, and 
now we are wondering what will come after the ro- 
mancers. It is a good time, when everybody is indulg- 
ing in the festivities of the season and nobody is likely 
to hear you, to growl at literary and artistic vagaries. 

First of all, let me ask what we have done that the 
Beardsley women should be flaunted at us from the 
boardings, as is being done by bill-stickers for " The 
Masqueraders." We are tired of the Beardsley women 
already, but I suppose they will serve to " work " the 
multitude for some time yet, and we must endure. As 
to posters in general, the mania is spreading with fright- 
ful rapidity. " Art " is to be seen on every fence, and 
tell it not in Gath in every grocery window. For 
several months I have been admiring the successive pos- 
ters of some unknown but enterprising magazine dis- 
played in a neighboring shop. A specially striking 
winter-scene drew my close attention, and I found my- 
self perusing a summary of the estimable qualities of 

's soups. It is evident that we shall soon surpass 

the Frenchmen in their own field, and that the maga- 
zines will have to seek a new method of advertising. 
" Tomato-can pictures " will no longer serve as the de- 
signation of a popular Academician's pictures among 
his less-successful rivals, and why ? Because pictures 
on tomato cans will soon be conformed to " high art." 

Then there is Trilby." Caught at last ! How one 
sympathizes with Mr. Dick at times like these, and with 
his efforts to keep the head of Charles the First out of 
his Memorial ! But there is no help for it. " Trilby " 
must be mentioned, for " Trilby " is to be dramatized. 
Pray, Messrs. Harpers, and pray, Mr. Du Maurier, sup- 
press any more Trilby " posters. Let Mr. Palmer spell 
out the word in letters twenty feet high, if he chooses, 
but no pictures. Do not remove the last vestige of 
our enjoyment of them by such damnable iteration. Are 
we to have " Trilby " soap a la Svengali ! Are we to 
have Trilby " slippers ? Not in New York, at least, 
for they were several sizes too large in the story ! 
How about " Trilby " living pictures ? The brain reels 
at the thought of the revenues to be gained by farming 
out "Trilby" privileges. Judging by the crowds at 
the Fifth Avenue Galleries last week, a travelling art- 
gallery containing the original drawings would bring in 
an immense sum. I should be glad to receive one per 
cent for the suggestion. 

" Trilby " must be now approaching the two hundred 
thousand mark in the " States." A mere ten per cent 
of the retail price, $1.75, would net the author $35,000 
for that many copies. Who would not write a " Trilby," 
if he could, as your contemporary in this city remarks ? 



It was needless for that contemporary to repeat the old 
song, however, as to " why people, when they discuss 
the relations of authors and publishers, so seldom give 
the publisher credit for common business sense. They 
do not seem to understand that publishers, like most 
men, are doing business on business principles." Do n't 
they ? I warrant the authors do. This quotation would 
far better read, " I wonder why people, when they dis- 
cuss the relations of authors and publishers, so seldom 
give the author credit for common business sense. They 
do not seem to understand that authors, like most men, 
are doing business on business principles." How good 
that sounds. I hope Mr. Du Maurier made a fine bar- 
gain. No doubt he will be Baron Du Maurier, if the 
wind holds fair, and if he be eligible. 

Speaking of the profits of English novelists, there is 
one small item of American interest. Mr. Edward Bel- 
lamy's " Looking Backward " has just reached its four 
hundredth thousand. The sale for the past year or two 
has been slower but steady. He apparently has been 
following the practice of Mr. Hall Caine, of whom it is 
said that " he has no work on hand just now; he is en- 
joying the success of < The Manxman ' and meditating 
his next big book." Welcome, Messieurs les Anglais, 
to our golden grain, but restrain the tendency exhibited 
by certain eager brethren to put their feet in the trough. 
Dr. Horace Howard Furness is busily engaged at his 
country place in Wallingford, Penn., with the final 
proofs of the " Midsummer Night's Dream," which the 
J. B. Lippincott Co. will bring out in March. It was at 
one time rumored that Dr. Furness had given up fur- 
ther work on his "Variorum" edition of Shakespeare; 
but this is, happily, untrue. " Romeo and Juliet," by 
the way, the first of the series, appeared in 1871. The 
" Midsummer Night's Dream " will contain a very full 
discussion concerning the allegory contained in Oberon's 
vision of the "fair vestal throned by the West." The 
identity of the " little Western flower," referred to a few 
lines further on, is discussed by various authorities in 
some fifteen pages of fine type. Mary, Queen of Scots, 
and Lettice Knollys, wife of the Earl of Essex, are, I 
believe, the most likely originals. 

Of all the season's giftbooks, of the standard type, 
the " Holland " of Signor Edmondo de Amicis, trans- 
lated by Miss Helen Zimmern and published by Messrs. 
Porter & Coates, of Philadelphia, seems to me the most 
beautiful in its simple but elegant binding. The cover 
design embraces a delicate tracery of tulips, while 
the printing and the photogravures are as nearly per- 
fect as possible. The edition was sold out soon after 
publication, but a new supply was obtained in time for 
the late Christmas trade. This point is interesting as 
showing how large and constant the demand is for well- 
made standard works of literature. 

It is impossible to name all the literary, educational, 
and scientific events, which take place here at this season 
of the year. This week there is the seventh annual 
meeting of the American Economic Association, with a 
reception by President Low of Columbia. Next week 
will include the Memorial Meeting in honor of Robert 
Louis Stevenson; the recital of an act of Mr. Walter 
Damrosch's opera, " The Scarlet Letter," announced last 
year in this correspondence, for which Mr. George Par- 
sons Latfcrop has written the libretto; and the triennial 
Twelfth Night celebration of the Century Club, the 
only occasion on which all " strangers " are banished 
?rom the rooms of the most hospitable of the great New 
York clubs. ARTHUR STEDMAN> 



28 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



LITERARY NOTES. 



A revised edition of Mr. Austin Dobson's poems is 
announced by Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co. 

Mr. George A. Aitken will edit -a sixteeii-volume edi- 
tion of Defoe's works of fiction for Messrs. Dent & Co. 

The FitzGerald letters to Fanny Kemble, one hun- 
dred or so in number, will first appear serially in " Tem- 
ple Bar." 

Mr. John T. Morse, Jr., will prepare the authorized 
memoir of Oliver Wendell Holmes, mentioned in our 
last issue. 

The J. B. Lippincott Co. announce a work upon " New 
High German," in two volumes, by the late William 
Winston Valentine. 

Professor O. F. Emerson is about to follow up his 
" History of the English Language " with a similar but 
smaller volume for high-school use. 

Mr. Humphry Ward is this winter to make a tour 
in the United States, lecturing on art and artists. It is 
said that Mrs. Ward will accompany him. 

Mine. Blanc's papers on " The Condition of Woman 
in the United States," translated by Miss Abby Lang- 
don Alger, are announced by Messrs. Roberts Brothers. 
! Messrs. Lemcke & Buechner (Westermann) send us 
a neatly-printed " Catalogue Raisonne* of German Lit- 
erature," giving priced lists of German classical works, 
together with notes upon the best English translations. 

Mrs. Anne Thackeray Ritchie, whose "Chapters of 
Unwritten Memoirs " are reviewed in this issue of THE 
DIAL, is reported to have under consideration the pre- 
paration of an annotated edition of her father's work. 

The Rev. George E. Ellis, President of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, died in Boston on the twenty- 
first of December, at the age of eighty. He was the 
author of many biographical, historical, and theological 
works. 

Dr. John Chapman, for many years editor of " The 
Westminster Review," and the intimate associate of 
George Eliot, Froude, Dr. Martineau, and Mr. Spencer, 
died early in December. For many years past he had 
practised medicine in Paris, although he still kept his 
hold upon the " Review." 

A " Social England " series, edited by Mr. Kenelm L. 
Cotes, is announced by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. The 
first volume to appear will be " Troubadours and Courts 
of Love," by Mr. J. F. Rowbotham. Other volumes will 
be "The English Manor," by Professor Vinogradoff; 
and " The Pre-Elizabethan Drama," by Miss Lucy Toul- 
inin Smith. 

The name of Lord Rosebery heads the list of a com- 
mittee organized to secure the purchase of Carlyle's 
house in Cheyne Road, Chelsea. It is hoped to make 
a Carlyle Museum of the building. A fund of about 
4000 is needed, and subscriptions are invited. Re- 
mittances may be made to Mr. A. C. Miller, 61 Cecil 
St., Manchester, England. 

Mr. L. J. B. Lincoln, the editor of " Uncut Leaves," 
has begun the issue of a " monthly letter of advance 
criticism and literary information." The first number 
has appeared, and consists of twelve pages of fresh and 
readable comment upon books recently, or ablaut to be, 
published, as well as notes upon the doings of literary 
folk in New York and elsewhere. 

Our imports of books and other printed matter for 
the first nine months of last year amounted to a little 



over two and a half millions of dollars, nearly half being 
dutiable. This is a falling-off of about twenty-five per 
cent from the figures for the corresponding period of 
1893. During the same nine months we exported books 
to the value of one and three-quarters millions of dollars. 
The publication of that valuable weekly, " Science," 
has just been resumed, under the direction of an edi- 
torial committee whose membership includes such lead- 
ers of American scientific thought as Professors New- 
comb, Mendenhall, Pickering, Remsen, LeConte, Davis, 
Marsh, Brooks, Brinton, and Cattell. We heartily 
welcome the reappearance of the periodical after its long 
eclipse. 

Dr. John Lord, the well-known writer and lecturer 
upon history, died at his home in Stamford, Conn., on 
the fifteenth of December. He was one of the men of 
1809, and his birthday was that of Mr. Gladstone, De- 
cember 29. " Beacon-Lights of History " is his most 
widely-read work. The Rev. Alex. S. Twombly, D.D., 
of Newton, Mass., is preparing a memoir of Dr. Lord. 
He would gladly receive memoranda of fact, letters 
from Dr. Lord, etc., and, in all cases where it is requested, 
will carefully preserve and return such material after 
having copied from it what may suit his purposes. 

A Memorial Meeting in honor of the late Robert 
Louis Stevenson will be held in the great auditorium of 
the Carnegie Music Hall, New York, on the evening of 
January 4. It will be held under the auspices of Mr. 
Lincoln's " Uncut Leaves " Society and the St. Andrews 
Society, of that city, leading authors, artists, editors, 
and business men cooperating. Mr. Edmund Clarence 
Stedman will preside and deliver the opening address. 
Speeches are expected from Messrs. Richard Henry 
Stoddard, Andrew Carnegie, William Winter, George 
W. Cable, Parke Godwin, David Christie Murray, and 
others. Mr. Nelson Wheatcroft will recite a ballad and 
a selection from a story by Stevenson, and musical in- 
terludes will be given by an orchestra. 

In Whittier's lately published Letters several refer- 
ences are made to the poem of " Barbara Frietchie," 
the historical basis of which has more than once been 
called in question. A note from Mr. Whittier to the 
editor of this journal, not included in the recent col- 
lection, touches the point at issue, though, it must be 
admitted, not very conclusively. The note is dated from 
Amesbury, Nov. 15, 1885, and in it Mr. Whittier says: 
" Of the substantial truth of the heroism of Barbara 
Frietchie I can have no doubt. Mrs. E. D. N. South- 
worth, the novelist, of Washington, sent me a slip from 
a newspaper, stating the circumstance as it is given in 
the poem, and assured me of its substantial correctness. 
Dorothea L. Dix, the philanthropic worker in the Union 
hospitals, confirmed it. From half a dozen other sources 
I had the account, and all agree in the main facts. 
Barbara Frietchie was the boldest and most outspoken 
Unionist in Frederick, and manifested it to the Rebel 
army in an unmistakable manner." 

The " Saturday Review," under the new management 
of Mr. Frank Harris, is making a fierce attack upon the 
new Oxford School of English Literature. The follow- 
ing is a specimen of the slashing sort of criticism that 
is being served up weekly: " The curriculum of the new 
School of English Language and Literature at Oxford 
is now before us. To say that it justifies our fears of 
what such a Board of Studies, as the Board appointed 
for the regulation of this School, would be likely to pro- 
duce, would be to give a very imperfect idea of so de- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



29 



plorable an exhibition of pedantry, ignorance, and incom- 
petence. Of pedantry, for all that has any pretension 
to satisfactory organization is the Philological portion; 
of ignorance, for the boundary dates assigned to par- 
ticular epochs in our literature are often as muddled 
as they are misleading, while the selection of books 
prescribed for special study displays utter inability to 
distinguish between what is and what is not character- 
istic and significant in the works of individual authors, 
both particularly in relation to the authors themselves 
and generally in relation to the era at which such works 
appeared; of incompetence, for two -thirds of what 
constitutes a literary education in the true sense of the 
term an adequate acquaintance with classical litera- 
ture, a knowledge of the principles of criticism, the 
possession of a good style, of sound judgment, of refined 
taste, and the like are in the provisions of this curric- 
ulum simply ignored. Regarded as a curriculum of 
Philology it is most inadequate. Regarded as a cur- 
riculum in Literature it is literally below contempt." 



TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS. 

January, 1895 (First List}. 

American Parties, Beginnings of. Noah Brooks. Scribner. 
American Type, Survival of the. J. H. Denison. Atlantic. 
Animal Tinctumutants. James Weir, Jr. Popular Science. 
Babies and Monkeys. S. S. Buckman. Popular Science. 
Ballet, Art in the. C. Wilhelm. Magazine of Art. 
Booth's Letters. E. A. Barren. Dial. 
Botany in German Universities. G. J. Pierce. Educa'l Rev. 
Bourbons, The Fortunes of the. Kate M. Rowland. Harper. 
Charleston and the Carolinas. Julian Ralph. Harper. 
Christmas Customs. Elizabeth F. Seat. Lippincott. 
College Reforms. Charles C. Ramsay. Educational Rev. 
Concentration. F. M. McMurry. Educational Rev. 
Cooperative Production in the British Isles. Atlantic. 
Dickens's Place in Literature. Frederic Harrison. Forum. 
Dramatic Season, The. Edward Marshall. McClure. 
Eisteddfod, The Meaning of an. Edith Brower. Atlantic. 
England, Social Progress in. A. B. Woodford. Dial. 
Ethics in Natural Law. L. G. Janes. Popular Science. 
France, The Genius of. Havelock Ellis. Atlantic. 
Fujisan. Alfred Parsons. Harper. 
Gallia Rediviva. Adolphe Cohn. Atlantic. 
Ibsen's New Play. W. M. Payne. Dial. 
Japanese, Mental Characteristics of. G. T. Ladd. Scribner. 
Journalists, The Pay and Rank of. Henry King. Forum. 
Literary London, Mrs. Ritchie's Memories of. Dial. 
Marengo, The Battle of. Joseph Petit. McClure. 
McLachlan, Thomas Hope. Selwyn Image. Mag. of Art. 
Mirabean and the French Revolution. D. L. Shorey. Dial. 
Money Controversy, The. Louis R. Garnett. Forum. 
Moral Standards, Our. Albert B. Hart. Forum. 
Munich as an Art Centre. M. H. Spielmann. Mag. of Art. 
New York Slave-Traders. Thomas A. Janvier. Harper. 
Pacific, Naval Control of the. Marsden Manson. Overland. 
Parkhurst, Charles H. E. J. Edwards. McClure. 
Political Discussions, Recent. H. P. Judson. Dial. 
Presidential Election System, Our. James Schouler, Forum. 
Salvation Army Work in the Slums. Maud Booth. Scribner. 
Schoolroom Ventilation. G. H. Knight. Popular Science. 
Sculpture of the Year. Claude Phillips. Magazine of Art. 
Shakespeare in a New Light. E. E. Hale, Jr. Dial. 
Shakespeare's Americanisms. H. C. Lodge. Harper. 
Singapore. Rounsevelle Wildman. Overland. 
Socialist Novels. M. Kauffman. Lippincott. 
Stedman and British Contemporaries. Mary J. Reid. Overland. 
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Dial. 

Strike Commission, Report of the. H. P. Robinson. Forum. 
Tree, Herbert Beerbohm. Gilbert Parker. Lippincott. 
Underwood, Francis H. J. T. Trowbridge. Atlantic. 
Weeks and Sabbaths, Origin of. A. B. Ellis. Pop. Science. 



OF NEW BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 91 titles, includes books re- 
ceived by THE DIAL since its last issue."] 

HISTORY. 

The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The 
Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. By Prof. 
Pasquale Villari ; trans, by Linda Villari. Illus., 8vo, 
gilt top, uncut, pp. 365. Macmillan & Co. $3.75. 

London and the Kingdom: A History. By Reginald R. 
Sharpe, D.C.L. Vol. II.; 8vo, pp. 650. Longmans, Green, 
& Co. $3.50. 

History of the Jews. By Professor H. Graetz. Vol. IV., 
127071618 C. E.; 8vo, pp. 743. Philadelphia : Jewish Pub- 
lication Society. S3. 

The Crusades: The Story of the Latin Kingdom of Jeru- 
salem. By T. A. Archer and Charles L. Kingsford. 
Illus., 12mo, pp. 467. Putnams' "Story of the Nations." 
$1.50. 

The Post in Grant and Farm. By J. Wilson Hyde, author 
of "The Royal Mail." 12mo, uncut, pp. 355. Macmil- 
lan & Co. $1.75. 

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS. 

The Life of Richard Owen. By his grandson, the Rev. 
Richard Owen, M.A.; with essay by the Right Hon. T. 
H. Huxley, F.R.S. In 2 vols., illus., 12mo, uncut. D. 
Appleton & Co. $7.50. 

The Presidents of the United States. By John Fiske, 
Carl Schurz, William E. Russell, and others ; edited by 
James Grant Wilson. Illus., 8vo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 526. 
D. Appleton & Co. $3.50. 

Henry of Navarre and the Religions Wars. By Edward T. 
Blair. Illus., large 8vo, gilt top, pp. 307. J. B. Lippin- 
cott Co. $4. 

The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth. Edited by 
Augustus J. C. Hare, author of "Memorials of a Quiet 
Life." In 2 vols., illus., 12mo, gilt tops. Hough ton. 
Mifflin&Co. $4. 

Memorials of the Prince de Joinville. Trans, from the 
French by Lady Mary Loyd. Illus., 12mo, gilt top, un- 
cut, pp. 371. Macmillan & Co. $2.25. 

Commemorative Addresses: George William Curtis, Ed- 
win Booth, Kossuth, Audubon, Bryant. By Parke God- 
win. 12mo, gilt top, uncnt, pp. 239. Harper & Bros. $1.75. 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 

Le Morte Darthur: The Text as Written by Sir Thomas 
Malory and Imprinted by William Caxton at Westmin- 
ster, and now Spelled in Modern Style. With introduc- 
tion by Professor Rhys. In 2 vols., illus., large 8vo, gilt 
tops, uncut. Macmillan & Co. $14. 

The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited by 
the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, LL.D. Vol. IV., Notes to 
the Canterbury Tales ; 8vo, uncut, pp. 515. Macmillan 
& Co. $4. 

Literary and Social Essays. By George William Curtis. 
12mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 293. Harper & Bros. $2.50. 

The Women of Shakespeare. By Louis Lewes, Ph.D.; 
trans, by Helen Zimmern. 8vo, uncut, pp. 384. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. $2.50. 

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book I., Cantos I.-IV. Edited 
by Thomas J. Wise. Illus. by Walter Crane ; 4to, uncut, 
pp. 80. Macmillan & Co. $3. 

Tutte le Opere di Dante AHghieri. Nuovamentie rive 
dute nel testo da Dr. E. Moore. 12mo, uncut, pp. 490. 
Macmillan & Co. $2.25. 

Theatricals Second Series : The Album, The Reprobate. 
By Henry James. 12mo, uncut, pp. 416. Harper & Bros. 

41 7*. 

C I . ' ' 

Essays by Joseph Mazzini. Translated by Thomas Okey ; 
edited, with introduction, by Bolton King. With por- 
trait, 12mo, uncut, pp. 263. Macmillan & Co. $1. 

Ballads in Prose. By Nora Hopper. 12mo, gilt top, pp. 
186. Roberts Bros. $1.50. 

Original Plays. By W. S. Gilbert. Third series ; 16mo, pp. 
453. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1. 

The History of the English Paragraph : A Dissertation. 
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30 



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34 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



Houghton, flifflin & Co.'s New Books of Fiction. 



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NESS, LL.D. 

C(EUR D'ALENE. 

A dramatic account of riots in the Creur d'Alene mines 
in 1892, with an engaging love story. By MARY 
HALLOCK FOOTE, author of " John Bodewin's Testi- 
mony," "The Led-Horse Claim," "In Exile," etc. 
16mo, $1.25. 

"Mrs. Foote ranges through the whole gamut of Rocky 
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The movement of the story is rapid, the interest most intense, 
and the event almost tragic ; but the narrative is interspersed 
with many a scene sparkling with humor and brilliant dia- 
logue." Books (Denver). 



DANVIS FOLKS. 

By ROWLAND E. ROBINSON, author of "Vermont," in 
the American Commonwealth Series. 16mo, $1.25. 
"There is a prejudice against dialect stories, because so 
many have been written for the mere literary effect and in 
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But when, as in this case, they are the result of a close and 
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to an order of fiction of the best sort. . . . As a specimen of 
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. . . Very pleasant and entertaining reading. " TAe Church- 
man (New York). 

THE WHITE CROWN, and Other Stories. 

By HERBERT D. WARD. 16mo, $1.25. 
" Mr. Ward's stories, every one, have the supreme merit 
of being interesting." The Churchman (New York). 



SWEET CLOVER: 
A Romance of the White City. 

A charming love story, inwoven with phases of the 
Great Fair. By CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM, author 
of " Next Door," " Dr. Latimer," " Miss Bagg's Sec- 
retary," etc. Sixth Edition. 16mo, $1.25. 
" Mrs. Burnham has laid the scenes of her pleasant, pure- 
toned romance among the glories of the White City. It is 
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perspective that is not destroyed by too much effusion. . . . 
' Sweet Clover ' is one of the most agreeable tone stories which 
have appeared for a long time." Literary World (Boston). 
" The sights, sounds, and sentiment of the Columbian Ex- 
position are reproduced here as if by magic." Public Ledger 
(Philadelphia). 

THE GREAT REFUSAL: 

Letters from a Dreamer in Gotham. By PAUL E. MORE. 

16mo, $1.00. 

" It is in the form of letters, in which the supreme themes 
of love and religion are dealt with by an inquirer. It will 
take some study, perhaps, to rightly catch the spirit of these 
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spirit once caught there is in them a fascination and a charm 
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vertiser. 

THE CHASE OF SAINT CASTIN, 
And Other Tales. 

By Mrs. CATHERWOOD, author of " The Lady of Fort 
St. John," " Old Kaskaskia," etc. 16mo, $1.25. 
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back of the reach of recollection, but she is one of the few 
writers who can really project themselves into the remote past, 
and whose sympathies can find in the mustiest of records the 
palpitating life that most of us can find only in the memory 
of what we have personally known. To praise her new vol- 
ume of seven stories, headed by ' The Chase of Saint Castin,' 
is but to repeat what we have said upon many earlier occa- 
sions, for the touch is still delicate and firm, the charm un- 
failing." The Dial (Chicago). 



THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S, 
And Other Stories. 

By BRET HARTE. 16mo, $1.25. 
"There is something in the writing of Mr. Bret Harte 
which we find in the writing of no other American author, 
and no English author either, except Charles Dickens, and 
that is the power of holding his readers in spite of themselves. 
. . . ' The Bell-Ringer of Angel's ' exercises the old charm 
over us." Mail and Express (New York). 



BAYOU FOLK. 

By KATE CHOPIN. 16mo, $1.25. 
" These Creole and Arcadian tales are so fine that no words 
save * charming ' and ' fascinating ' will serve to describe 
them." Portland Transcript. 



*** Sold by all Booksellers. Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price, by 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, BOSTON, MASS. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



35 



& Co 

W WU., 



Broadwa y> 



Will Sell at 

January 21 and 22, 

The Library of Henry B. Ham = 
mond, Esq. *An exceedingly valu- 
able collection of Standard, English 
Literature, Fine Illustrated Works, 
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condition, and in handsome and 
substantial bindings. 

January 30 and 31, 

The magnificent collection made by 
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glish Literature, both Ancient 
and Modern, including works by 
Braithwate, Butler, Browning, Cow- 
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Goldsmith, Gray, Herbert, Herrick, 
Keats, Lamb, Milton, Swift, Suck- 
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B. WESTERMANN & CO., 

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CATALOGUE RAISONNE 

Of German Belles-Lettres containing the Glassies, their 
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a list of 

English Translations of German Books, 
being hints for selecting the German Library of a man 
of culture. 

Subscriptions for Foreign and American Periodicals. 

JUST PUBLISHED. 

WALTER BLACKBURN HARTE'S 

MEDITATIONS IN [MOTLEY 

A Bundle of Papers Imbued with the 
Sobriety of Midnight. 

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Price, Cloth extra, $1.25. 
ARENA PUBLISHING CO., Copley Square, Boston. 



"BOOKS. 



THE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

Second edition. A Concise Account of the War in the United 
States of America between 1861 and 1865. By JOHN COD- 
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"Most complete and interesting account of the Civil War 
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THE WIND IN THE CLEARING. 

Second edition. Poems by ROBERT CAMERON ROGERS. 12mo, 

cloth, $1.25. 

Mr. Richard Henry Stoddard, in the Mail and Express, 
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A BUDDHIST CATECHISM. 

An introduction to the teachings of the Buddha G6tamo, com- 
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SUBHADRA BHIKSHU. 12mo, cloth, $1.00. 

IOLA: The Senator's Daughter. 

A Story of Ancient Rome. By MANSFIELD L. HILLHOUSE. 

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" The history and local color of the time is admirably pre- 
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PRINCE HENRY (the Navigator) 

Of Portugal, and the Age of Discovery in Europe. By C. R. 

BEAZLEY, M.A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. (Be- 

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" Stories of the Nations " and the " Heroes of the Nations," 
sent on application. 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 

NEW YORK AND LONDON. 



36 THE DIAL [Jan. 16, 1895. 

riacmillan & Co.'s New Popular Books. 

THE RALSTONS. 

A Sequel to " Katharine Landerdale." By F. MARION CRAWFORD, author of " Saracinesca," " Marion Darclie," 
" Don Orsino," etc. 2 vols., small 12mo, buckram, $2.00. 

Already Published. 

KATHARINE LAUDERDALE. 

By F. MARION CRAWFORD. 2 vols., small 12mo, buckram, $2.00. 



The Melancholy of Stephen Allard. 



A PRIVATE DIARY. 



Edited by GARNETT SMITH. Crown 8vo, Si. 75. 



A New Novel by the Author of "The Curb of Honour." 

A Romance of Dijon. 

By M. BETHAM-EDWARDS, author of " The Curb of Honour," 
etc. 12mo, cloth, $1.25. 



ILLUSTRATED STANDARD NOVELS. 

A Series of reprints of famous works of fiction which may fairly be considered to have taken an established place in English 

literature. 

Every novel will have for an Introduction a Prefatory Notice written by a critic of distinction, and each volume will 
contain about 40 full-page and other illustrations. 

The volumes will consist of from 400 to 600 pages, 12mo, printed on antique paper, and will be published at the popular 
price of $1.25. 

Just Published. 

CASTLE RACKRENT AND THE ABSENTEE. 

By MARIA EDGEWORTH. Illustrated by Miss CHRIS. HAMMOND, with an Introduction by ANNE THACKERAY RITCHIE. 

Beady February 15. 
JAPHET IN SEARCH OF A FATHER. 

By Captain MARRYAT. Illustrated by HENRY M. BROCK, with an Introduction by DAVID HANNAY. 



By the Editor of "Boswell." 
Harvard College by an Oxonian. 

By GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L., Pembroke College, 
Oxford ; editor of " Boswell's Life of Johnson," author of 
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ispiece Portrait in Photogravure of President Eliot, and with 
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$2.25. 



Dr. Paulsen's Important Work. 

Character and Historical Development of the 

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By Professor F. PAULSEN. Translated by EDWARD DELA- 
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With an Introduction by NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Pro- 
fessor of Philosophy in Columbia College. 12mo, cloth, 

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MEMOIRS (Vieux Souvenirs) OF THE PRINCE DE JOINVILLE. 

Translated from the French by Lady MARY LOYD. With many illustrations from drawings by the author. 12mo, cloth, 

gilt top, $2.25. 

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Alexander III. of Russia. 

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The Globe Chaucer. 
The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. 

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GREEK STUDIES. 

A Series of Essays. By the late WALTER PATER, M.A., author of " Marius the Epicurean," etc. Arranged for publication 
by CHARLES LANCELOT SHADWELL, M.A., B.C.L., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 12mo, $1.75. 



From a New England Hillside. 

Notes from Underledge. By WILLIAM POTTS. 18mo, gilt 
top, 75 cents. 



The Aims of Literary Study. 

By HIRAM CORSON, A.M., LL.D., Professor of English Lit- 
erature in Cornell University. 18mo, gilt top, 75 cents. 



Now Ready: MR. BRYCE'S GREAT WORK ON THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. 

In two volumes. Price, $4.00 net. 
NEW, REVISED, AND ENLARGED EDITION, WITH ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS. 

THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. 

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* # *The work has been thoroughly brought down to date. The new chapters treat of the Tammany Ring in New York City ; the Home of 
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in one work. . . . It will remain a standard even for the American reader." New York Tribune. 



MACMILLAN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, No. 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. 



THE DIAL 

5nnt=fK0ntf)l2 Journal of SLtterarjj Criticism, Btscussion, antJ Information. 



No. 206. JANUARY 16, 1895. Vol. XVIII. 



CONTENTS. 



CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI 37 

NOVELS AND NOVEL READERS. Richard Burton 39 

COMMUNICATIONS 41 

"Mirabeau and the French Revolution." A Reply. 

H. von Hoist. 
Departmental Libraries. Aksel G. S. Josephson. 

MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS. E. G. J. . . 43 

THE WAY OF THE GODS IN JAPAN. Ernest W. 

Clement 45 

EARLY LONDON THEATRES. G. M. Hyde ... 47 

ROPES'S HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. C. H. 

Cooper 48 

RECENT FICTION. William Morton Payne ... 50 
Warner's The Golden House. Cable's John March, 
Southerner. Mitchell's When All the Woods Are 
Green. Ford's The Honorable Peter Stirling. 
Clowes's The Double Emperor. Bouv^'s Centuries 
Apart. Crockett's The Lilac Sunbonnet. Hag- 
gard's The People of the Mist. Hope's The God in 
the Car. Hope's The Indiscretion of the Duchess. 
Mrs. Edmonds's Amygdala. Cunningham's Sibylla. 
Zola's Lourdes. J<5kai's Eyes Like the Sea. 
Bjornson's Synnove Solbakken. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 56 

Some sound and readable musical criticism. "The 
English Novel" and the "Study of Fiction." A 
text-book of an old-fashioned sort. The military ca- 
reer of General Hancock. Josiah Wedgwood and his 
work. Closing volume of Professor Huxley's col- 
lected essays. A satisfactory life of Cicero. A 
" Prelude to Poetry." 

BRIEFER MENTION 59 

NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 60 

LITERARY NOTES 60 

TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 61 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 62 



CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI. 

The last day of the year just ended brought 
news of the death of Miss Rossetti, the young- 
est of that famous quartette of brothers and 
sisters of whom Mr. W. M. Rossetti is now 
left the sole survivor. Maria Francesca, who 
died in 1876, was the oldest of the four, hav- 
ing first seen the light in 1827. Then came 
Dante Gabriel in 1828, William Michael in 
1829, and Christina Georgina in 1830. Miss 
Rossetti gave early evidence of her poetic tal- 
ents, as is shown by the privately-printed vol- 
ume of "Verses," dated 1847. In 1850, with 
her brothers, she wrote for the famous " Germ," 



over the pseudonymous signature of " Ellen 
Alleyne." It was not, however, until 1862 
that she took her destined place among the 
greater Victorian poets, with " Goblin Market 
and Other Poems." That volume was followed, 
in 1866, by " The Prince's Progress and Other 
Poems," and, in 1881, by "A Pageant and 
Other Poems." It is upon the contents of these 
three collections that Miss Rossetti's reputation 
must rest, although she did a considerable 
amount of other literary work. Before discuss- 
ing the character of her poems, we may dispose 
of the other books by a simple enumeration. 
' " Commonplace and Other Short Stories " 
(1870) and "Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme- 
Book" (1872) are titles that speak for them- 
selves. " Speaking Likenesses," a volume of 
"quasi- allegorical prose," and " Annus Domini : 
A Prayer for Every Day in the Year," both 
bear the date 1874. " Seek and Find," " Called 
to the Saints," and " Letter and Spirit," three 
religious works in prose, date from 1879, 1881, 
and 1883, respectively; while "Time Flies," 
a reading diary in alternate verse and prose, 
appeared in 1885, and was, we believe, her last 
published volume. These devotional books, 
which have both found and deserved a large 
and appreciative audience, are distinctly out of 
the common, but the spirit which finds expres- 
sion in them finds utterance still more intense 
and rapturous in the three volumes of song to 
which we now turn. 

It is not the least of the glories of English, 
poetry that two women should be numbered! 
among the singers whom we most love and! 
honor. It is perhaps idle to inquire whether 
Mrs. Browning or Miss Rossetti is to be es- 
teemed the greater poet ; the one thing certain 
is that no other English woman is to be named 
in the same breath with them. These two 
stand far apart from the throng, lifted above 
it by inspiration and achievement, and no ac- 
count of the greater poetry of our century can 
ignore them. If there is something more in- 
stinctive, more inevitable in impulse, about the 
work of Mrs. Browning, there is more of re- 
straint and of artistic finish about the work of 
Miss Rossetti. The test of popularity would 
assign to the former the higher rank, just as 
it would place Byron above Keats and Cole- 
ridge, or above Wordsworth and Shelley ; but 
the critic has better tests than the noisy verdicts. 



38 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



of the multitude, and those tests lessen, if they 
do not quite do away with, the seeming dispar- 
ity between the fame of the two women. 

The longer pieces which introduce Miss Ros- 
setti's three volumes are not the most success- 
ful of their contents. It is rather to the lyrics, 
ballads, and sonnets that the lover of poetry 
will turn to find her at her best. Who, for 
example, could once read and ever forget such 
a sonnet as " Rest " ? 

" Earth, lie heavily upon her eyes ; 

Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth ; 

Lie close around her ; leave no room for mirth 
With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs. 
She hath no questions, she hath no replies, 

Hushed in and curtained with a blessed dearth 

Of all that irked her from the hour of birth, 
With stillness that is almost Paradise. 
Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her, 

Silence more musical than any song ; 
Even her very heart hath ceased to stir : 

Until the morning of Eternity 

Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be ; 
And when she wakes she will not think it long." 

Or" who could escape the haunting quality of 
such a lyric as this : 

" When I am dead, my dearest, 

Sing no sad songs for me ; 
Plant thou no roses at my head, 

Nor shady cypress-tree ; 
Be the green grass above me 

With showers and dewdrops wet ; 
And if thou wilt, remember, 

And if thou wilt, forget. 

" I shall not see the shadows, 

I shall not feel the rain ; 
I shall not hear the nightingale 

Sing on, as if in pain : 
And dreaming through the twilight 

That doth not rise nor set, 
Haply I may remember, 

And haply may forget." 

The poem just quoted can hardly fail to re- 
call, in feeling, thought, and measure, Mr. 
Swinburne's " Rococo," and thus emphasizes the 
spiritual relationship of the author to the poets 
of the group sometimes styled " Pre-Raphael- 
ite." Similarly, the perfect lyric called " Dream- 
Land " is clearly akin to " The Garden of 
Proserpine," and it is not difficult to discern 
the same sort of kinship between Miss Rossetti's 
" Up-Hill " and Mr. Swinburne's " The Pil- 
grims." Now the point to be noted is that all 
three of Miss Rossetti's poems were published 
in the volume of 1862, while the three Swin- 
burnian poems date from several years later. 
There is, of course, no question of imitation 
in each case what remains a simple theme with 
the one poet is elaborated into a symphony by 
the other but it is difficult to escape the con- 
clusion that the man was influenced by the wo- 
man in all three of the cases. Particularly with 
" Up-Hill " and " The Pilgrims," we note the 



common use of the dialogue form and the ab- 
solute identity of the austere ethical motive. 

Miss Rossetti's verses sometimes suggest 
those of other poets, but we always feel that 
her art is distinctly her own. The divine sim- 
plicity of Blake is echoed in such a stanza as 

" What can lambkins do 

All the keen night through ? 
Nestle by their woolly mother, 
The careful ewe." 

The melting, almost cloying, sweetness of the 
Tennysonian lyric meets us in these verses : 

" Come to me in the silence of the night ; 

Come in the speaking silence of a dream ; 
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright 
As sunlight on a stream ; 

Come back in tears, 
O memory, hope, love of finished years." 

As for the influence of the great Italian, which 
shaped so powerfully the thought of every mem- 
ber of the Rossetti family, it is less tangible 
here than in the work of her greater brother, 
yet to it must be attributed much of the ten- 
derness and the pervasive mysticism of her 
poems. It is perhaps most apparent in the two 
sonnet-sequences, " Monna Innominata " and 
" Later Life," both included in the volume of 
1881. And the influence of that brother who 
bore the sacred name of the Florentine is like- 
wise intangible but pervasive. We get a 
glimpse of it in " Amor Mundi," for example, 
and in many a vanitas vanitatum strain. But 
we must repeat that Miss Rossetti's genius was 
too original to be chargeable with anything 
more than that assimilation of spiritual influ- 
ence from which no poet can hope wholly to es- 
cape, and which links together in one golden 
chain the poetic tradition of the ages. 

If in most of the provinces of the lyric realm 
Miss Rossetti's verse challenges comparison 
with that of our greater singers, it is in the 
religious province that the challenge is most 
imperative and her mastery most manifest. 
Not in Keble or Newman, not in Herbert or 
Vaughan, do we find a clearer or more beau- 
tiful expression of the religious sentiment than 
is dominant in Miss Rossetti's three books. In 
this respect, at least, she is unsurpassed, and 
perhaps unequalled, by any of her contempo- 
raries. In her devotional pieces there is no 
touch of affectation, artificiality, or insincerity. 
Such poems as " The Three Enemies " and 
" Advent " in the first volume, " Paradise " and 
" The Lowest Place " in the second, and many 
of the glorious lyrics and sonnets of the third, 
will long be treasured among the religious clas- 
sics of the English language. Perhaps the 
poet's highest achievement in this kind is the 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



39 



" Old and New Year Ditties " of the first vol- 
ume. Some such claim, at least, has been made 
by no less an authority than Mr. Swinburne for 
the closing section of the poem. 

" Passing away, saith the World, passing away ; 
Chances, beauty, and youth sapped day by day ; 
Thy life never continueth in one stay. 
Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to gray 
That hath won neither laurel nor bay ? 
I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May : 
Thou, root-stricken, shalt not rebuild thy decay 
On my bosom for aye. 
Then I answered : Yea. 

" Passing away, saith my Soul, passing away ; 
With its burden of fear and hope, of labor and play ; 
Hearken what the past doth witness and say : 
Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array, 
A canker is in thy bud, thy leaf must decay. 
At midnight, at cock-crow, at morning, one certain day 
Lo, the Bridegroom shall come and shall not delay : 
Watch thou and pray. 
Then I answered : Yea. 

*' Passing away, saith my God, passing away : 
Winter passeth after the long delay ; 
New grapes on the vine, new figs on the tender spray, 
Turtle calleth turtle in Heaven's May, 
Though I tarry, wait for Me, trust Me, watch and pray. 
Arise, come away, night is past, and lo it is day, 
My IOTC, My sister, My spouse, thou shalt hear Me say. 
Then I answered : Yea." 

It is peculiarly fitting that the author of these 
fervid and solemn verses, written for one New 
Year's season, should herself have passed away 
on the very eve of another. 



NOVELS AND NOVEL READERS. 

Just as the term father implies the correlative 
term child, so does a novel imply a novel reader. 
It were hard to imagine a piece of fiction without 
an audience, even if the audience number but one 
and be furnished by the author himself. Readers, 
then, being necessary, it touches the quick of the 
fictionist's interest to inquire: What is the attitude 
of the present-day patrons of tales towards the dif- 
ferent kinds of fiction purveyed for their delecta- 
tion? Is the purpose-novel preferred, or the light 
and cynical analytic study, or the frankly objective 
adventure-tale of your true romanticist? Would 
Mrs. Ward win the popular plebiscite, or Mr. Ben- 
son, or Messrs. Stevenson, Doyle, and Weyman? 

Of course a categorical reply could only be made 
on the basis of counting noses : the pure mathemat- 
ics, of the problem will always be out of reach. 
Still, what with the test of sales, the talk of society, 
and the a posteriori analyses of the critics, an opin- 
ion of some solidity may be attained. The writer 
has made a point of conversing with divers sorts of 
folk who care for fiction (and who, outside of the 
absolutely illiterate class, does not care for it?), and 
has been both interested and instructed by the tes- 
timony thus derived. Blending the illumination 
gained in this way with that from other sources, he 
has concluded that novel-readers may be divided, 



roughly, into three classes : first, those who care for 
fiction as art primarily, and get their main pleasure 
from its truth to life, its character analysis, and its 
construction ; second, those whose interest centres 
in the thesis of the book, and who care little or 
nothing for form, style, and other distinctively lit- 
erary features ; and third, those to whom a novel is 
above all else a story, something to amuse and 
charm, an organism with movement, and zest of life. 
That division of novel-readers which looks for 
and relishes to the full the art of a bit of fiction is 
comparatively small, and for obvious reasons. Here 
belong the critics, the connoisseurs of literature. To 
such it matters not so much if a story be pleasant, 
or whether or not it teaches sound morality and su- 
perinduces a better opinion of one's fellow-men. If 
it have construction, vital character-drawing, and 
verisimilitude, if it possesses stylistic distinction and 
dramatic power, they are satisfied. The analytic 
student of the novel comes in the course of time to 
put his attention on these things to the exclusion of 
everything extraneous ; he reads more as a scientist 
and less as a human being. This is at once the 
privilege and the penalty of the critical function. 
It is only the very great books that can wrest him 
from this self-conscious and dubious coign of vant- 
age and set him cheek by jowl with ordinary hu- 
manity, breathless in watching a piece of life and 
personally involved in the fortunes of the dramatis 
personce in the grip of the sweetest and'strongest 
of obsessions. Such, as a rule, is the critic's place 
and state of mind. Not always, even in his case, 
however. Mr. Andrew Lang, suffering, one might 
almost say, from a surfeit of culture, likes nothing 
so well as the novel with " go " and color and life, 
contradistinguished from that of analyses and the 
mooting of problems. Conceiving the end of art to 
be " pleasure, not edification," he makes a plea for 
"the Fijian canons of fiction," meaning thereby that 
those nawe natives in their stories " tell of gods and 
giants and canoes greater than mountains, and of 
women fairer than the women of these days, and of 
doings so strange that the jaws of the listeners fall 
apart." Mr. Lang, in short, is fond of beautiful 
impossibilities in a novel. But it is none the less 
fair to say that the critic-class, as such, reads with 
" Art for art's sake " perpetually engraven upon its 
censorious front. And it is also plain that the audi- 
ence thus furnished the fictionist is so small as to 
be numerically contemptible, and in the vulgar mat- 
ter of sales as unimportant as the p in pneumonia. 
To these professionals of criticism may be added a 
fraction of the reading public which uses their 
method, or in amateurish fashion, albeit honestly, 
follows in their wake. Very young persons whose 
education has been large and experience limited, and 
who for these reasons take themselves au grand 
serieux, and are more or less self-conscious in their 
psychological habitudes, belong here ; here belong, 
too, older, hardier, and more sensible people of a 
natural intellectual keenness, the ab ovo analysts of 
life, and of literature as its expression. These swear 



40 



[Jan. 16, 



by Mr. Howells's dicta, and, as to quality, are of 
the aristoi among readers, coveted by all genuine 
artists. But neither of these subsidiary classes 
swell the critic-class, caring for the art of a novel 
first of all, to proportions invalidating our claim 
that it is decidedly the smallest of the three, and, 
so far as immediate influence and the substantial 
return of figures is concerned, the least important. 
The second and larger class embraces readers 
who object not to didactics in their novels. To them 
a polemic in the guise of literature is as acceptable 
as a pill, sugar-coated to the taste, to the thorough- 
going homoeopathist. Many falling into this cate- 
gory enjoy literature per se, to be sure ; but they 
like it also to convey some thoughtful thesis, prefer- 
ring, so to say, the luxuriously cushioned barouohe 
of fiction to wrestling with the same problem in the 
Irish jaunting-car of sociology, or science. Hence is 
derived a good part of the audience rallying to the 
" Heavenly Twins " and " A Yellow Aster "; or 
that which a few years ago took up arms for " Rob- 
ert Elsmere." A part, not the whole, we must 
repeat; because these tendenzgeschichten, as the 
Germans call them, are far more than mere preach- 
ments and special pleadings; often containing the 
vivid characterization of flesh-and-blood creatures, 
the one red drop of human life which is precious. 
But it is undeniable that the immense amount of 
talk evoked by such books had never been forth- 
coming were they not a stage upon which to dis- 
play the puppets of theory and argument. Right 
here opinions violently clash, and schools form as 
naturally as rocks crystallize. Plenty of earnest 
and honest devotees of the novel will have it that 
art and story interest may be supplied in a book, 
plus the presentation of some vital question of the 
day, adding by so much to its importance and at- 
traction, and lifting fiction, traditionally regarded 
as a " light " division of literature, into a more le- 
gitimate place, until it ranks with serious (too often 
a synonym for dull) literature. It is, in fact, a lit- 
erary cult, at the present writing, to be " serious " 
in the novel ; as it was a social cult, during the re- 
cent panic, to be poor. It was the book more pain- 
fully and self-consciously didactic than any other 
in English fiction within several years, which pro- 
voked the most discussion not critical controversy 
so much as the more powerful unpredicable popular 
interest of society. The vogue and stimulation of 
Madame Grand's strong if unequal and inartistic 
essay in the field of social analysis were little short 
of phenomenal, although now, striking work in other 
sorts of fiction having since obscured it, one thinks 
of this study of the marital relation with Villon's 
refrain rising to the mind : " Where are the Snows 
of Yester-year?" For a season, it is even likely 
that the believers in purpose-fiction outnumbered 
not only the critical minority already characterized, 
but also the old-fashioned followers of the healthier 
tale whom we are to reckon with under our third 
division. For a season only, however, we should 
guess; there is a sort of rabies of interest which 



destroys by its own violence, and already may be 
seen the after-effects of what has been cleverly 
dubbed the " woman revolt in fiction." Still, this 
interest, this excitement, if temporary, has its sig- 
nificance, and goes to show that a wider and deeper 
appeal to humankind can be made through the novel, 
and will be made, an appeal touching grave ques- 
tions and the most sacred relations, as perhaps 
through no other form of the written word. It will 
not do to sneer at tendency literature as lying out- 
side of critical attention : Terence's line applies to 
literature even as to life, and nothing in fiction that 
broadly stirs his fellow men and women can be 
alien to the true critic's function. 

Yet it is plain, and to be plainly stated, that this 
popular furore over a dominant piece of purpose- 
fiction tends to obscure critical tests and canons. 
Those who read as they run, incline, under such in- 
fluence, to judge a work by the amount of imme- 
diate noise and intelligent comment it begets, and 
as a consequence one hears absurdly exaggerated 
encomium. " The Heavenly Twins," for example, 
is put on a par with " Marcella "; the truth being 
that beside Mrs. Ward's finished and masterful 
work of art, it is ill-constructed, false to life, faulty 
in drawing, and terribly diffuse, in fine, the jour- 
ney-work of a brilliant novice. The interest awak- 
ened by such a production is largely adventitious, 
because based on an appeal lying beyond artistic 
tests. It is well to have this clearly in mind here 
in the United States, where comparative criticism is 
but locally conceded, and where for this reason a 
stern insistence upon the criteria of artistic perfec- 
tion is of all places most needed. It is not cause 
for complaint that a host of readers, the palpable 
majority of whom are women, welcome novels hand- 
ling with more or less elan the relations of the sexes ; 
the repression, by the Anglo-Saxon traditions of 
convenance in fiction, of all that side of social phe- 
nomena, results, as might be expected, in an excess 
of curiosity and excitement which have their mor- 
bid manifestations ; but the residuum of all this fer- 
ment will be a broader outlook and a freer concep- 
tion of motifs. If, however, we do not learn to 
apply rigidly and with malice prepense to any fic- 
tion whatsoever, man-made or woman-begotten, the 
universal rules of art, a parlous state is ours. That 
section of society which elects the purpose-novel as 
its special pet and pride may gratify its taste under 
promise to exempt none of this popular product 
from the Rhadamanthian judgment by the which 
all fiction must be judged ; and with the agreement 
to keep clearly dissevered in their own minds the 
appeal of art and the appeal of thought. 

The readers of a more genial habit and a more 
traditional standard make up our third and final 
class. They care for a story for the story's sake, 
and, bothering not overmuch if its likeness to life 
be dubious, go so far as to open arms to a fine rep- 
resentation of the improbable. They stand by Bal- 
zac's phrase (rarely obeyed by the master himself) 
that the novelist should depict the world, not as it 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



41 



is, but as it may possibly become. And it is this 
sort of folk, we would contend, which on the whole 
is the best-balanced, the most humanistic, and in 
the long run the most influential, among novel-read- 
ers. Mr. Howells inclines to contemn a species 
which, to his view, still loves the rattle and the 
woolly horse in literature. But if he, or any other 
seeker after truth, will pursue the Socratic method, 
conversing with fellow mortals in the chance jostle 
of the social plexus, he will get evidence pushing 
towards our conclusion. The fact is that, despite 
all our rather self-conscious prating about art, and 
notwithstanding our somewhat feverish enthusiasm 
over introspective social questions, the clear-headed 
and sound-hearted folk, who (thank heaven !) are 
the warp of our social fabric, do not care to fret 
and fume for any such thing. They go to the novel 
for rest, amusement, illusion ; as the lovers of Thack- 
eray and Dickens did, of Scott and Dumas; as 
thousands now are doing with " Trilby," as true a 
child of the elder romanticists as was ever born. 
They have a deep-seated prejudice against fiction 
with a bad ending; so far from wishing to have a 
great book stamped indelibly on the mind at a first 
contact, they are glad to possess, as a cultivated 
reader expressed it to the writer, "the pleasant 
habit of forgetting a novel," assuring additional de- 
light in the event of re-perusal. "The world is two- 
thirds bad, I know," says the Advocatus diabole to 
the stickler for high art and serious purpose. " Your 
' realism ' teaches me nothing, it simply repeats un- 
savory and belittling facts of life ; and I would have 
none of it. Give me lies rather than literal ities, or, 
better yet, the half-truths of a scene where the light 
is accented and the shadows put in corners where 
they belong." Now this is unphilosophic perhaps, 
but it is natural and (pace Mr. Howells and those 
who jump with him) it is healthy, very. The 
trouble with the Howellsian view of fiction is that 
it is professional, and so not generally applicable. 
He is perfectly right for himself. 

But to argue pro and con as to this attitude of 
the readers who clamor for pleasant and incident- 
thronged novels, and who are the casus essendi of 
the Romantic reaction we are now witnessing, is, 
after all, aside from our main line of argument. 
We are not justifying their position or attacking 
it : we would simply register the fact of their exist- 
ence, and express the conviction that, while equal in 
intelligence and possibly excelling in common-sense 
either of the two other classes, they are to-day, and 
will be more surely to-morrow, the strongest in num- 
bers, and thus for practical reasons are to be respect- 
fully regarded by the maker of tales. Mr. Craw- 
ford, in his chapters on "The Art of Fiction," 
insists that it is the novelist's primary business to pur- 
vey amusement. The believers in romances have a 
sneaking sympathy with this position, though many 
of them would claim, and rightly, that along with 
the pleasure may go a noble stimulation of ideals 
affording that instruction through the divine indi- 
rection of art which is as far removed from didac- 



ticism as from the irresponsibility of the thorough- 
going realist. The advantage of those whose view- 
hallo is for illusion lies in their being in the line of 
a wholesome tradition, since men and women have 
gone more steadily to fiction for just that than for 
aught else : and again, in their now perceptible and 
daily waxing in strength, a phenomenon due to the 
noticeable reaction, on the one side from the strained 
probing of psychologic problems ; on the other, from 
the art substituting form for substance and a qui- 
escent pessimism for the cheerful bustle and vigor 
of red-blooded humankind. It is an audience to 
depend on in any age, this of the romance readers, 
and in quality such that the writer of fiction may 
well trust himself to deserve its plaudits ; it is a con- 
stituency which he should hesitate to lose, even if 
there appear to be a temporary appetite for the mor- 
bid or the naturalistic. It is a backing which, year 
in and year out, will sell his books and establish his 
fame and make his copyright a valuable inheritance 
to his children. RICHARD BURTON. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 

"MIRABEAU AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION." 

-A REPLY. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

I request you to publish in the next issue of your 
esteemed journal the following statements, hoping and 
trusting that you will willingly do so in justice, not 
only to myself, but also to the readers of THE DIAL. 

Like every writer, I must expect to be criticized. 
Like every writer I have, however, a right to claim 
that my writings be not reviewed in such a way that 
readers of the criticism, who have not read the work 
criticized, must necessarily believe me to have written 
something totally different from what I have actually 
written. Without questioning in the least the motives 
of Mr. D. L. Shorey, the reviewer of my Lowell lec- 
tures on the French Revolution in THE DIAL, I charge 
him with having done so to the extent it possibly can 
be done without saying any direct untruth. The in- 
ferences drawn by Mr. Shorey from my statement in 
regard to Mirabeau's being and wanting to be a party 
by himself are his and not mine. The unbiased reader 
of the book will readily see why they are palpable fal- 
lacies, though at first sight they seem to be irrefutable 
logical conclusions. The only explanation of Mr. 
Shorey's misconception that I can find is that he seems 
to have read the lectures without paying any attention 
whatever to the statement of facts they contain. To 
hurl Mirabeau's exclamation, " Ah ! how the immoral- 
ity of my youth injures the public weal," as a shaft 
against me, is strange, for I quote it (II., 236), endorse 
it most emphatically, show its tremendous import with 
minute detail, make it in fact one of the two main pil- 
lars of my whole argument. The same holds good of the 
question of lack of confidence in Mirabeau to such a de- 
gree that I must fain believe Mr. Shorey to have skipped 
the twenty or more pages (scattered) treating of it. 

That Mirabeau " became a new man (when he en- 
tered public life at the time of the revolution)" he 
entered it much earlier, as Mr. Shorey can find briefly 
stated in the lectures " and the immorality of his 
youth should not be counted against him " is not 



42 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 



" claimed " by me. Nowhere is such a statement made 
in the lectures, but they contain many a page showing 
very elaborately that my opinion is in truth much more 
nearly the directly opposite one than that I am made 
to hold. From Mr. Shorey's expatiations on the pay- 
ment Mirabeau received from the court, the reader 
must conclude that I either pass it over in silence or 
justify it. I state the facts much more fully than he 
does, charge him (M.) with being "sorrily unscrupu- 
lous about how he got the money he wanted to spend," 
declare his " extravagant joy " over the king's liber- 
ality " was more than undignified, it was revolting," 
but explain the transaction and reduce the charge of 
" venality " to what is warranted by the facts. Mr. 
Shorey does not make the slightest attempt at contro- 
verting the facts adduced by me. 

About Lafayette Mr. Shorey and I disagree. In his 
opinion there was no need of " having the searchlight 
of critical history turned upon " the general, for he 
says : " The conduct and character of Lafayette were 
well known long before any such search-light was dis- 
covered [! ?]. However it may be elsewhere, it was 
known at least in France and in the United States, that 
in a long life tried by many tests, the conduct of 
Lafayette was exceptionally consistent, and that it was 
uniformly governed not by passion, but by principle. In 
all emergencies he displayed the same high qualities." 
If Mr. Shorey thinks that that is the way in which 
not only one serious historical writer, but all critical 
history, can be disposed of, in case the results of investi- 
gation have the misfortune not to be to his taste and to 
run counter to wide-spread popular opinions well, 
then we differ, that is all. Again he does not make 
the slightest attempt at refuting the facts which I ad- 
duce of course only an infinitesimal part of those fur- 
nished, in my opinion, by Lafayette's whole career in 
support of my views, Lafayette himself being one of 
my authorities. Mr. Shorey's calling a charge " stale " 
does not undo incontestably-proved facts, and to hear 
in 1895 an unsubstantiated opinion of Sainte-Beuve in 
such a question quoted as decisive is surprising. To 
learn that Mirabeau was far from being free from 
blame in his relations to Lafayette, and that he at the 
same time grossly flattered and bitterly denounced him, 
the reader need not turn to Mr. Shorey's review ; it is 
freely stated and blamed, but besides explained in the 
lectures. 

If the main contents of my lectures can be said to 
be at all alluded to by Mr. Shorey, it is done in two or 
three words and in such a way that nobody can possibly 
guess from them what the thesis is I have tried to 
prove by the facts, or rather what I maintain to be 
demonstrated by the facts. jj VON JJOLST 

Chicago, January 4, 1895. 



DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARIES. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

There has lately been originated in Chicago a type of 
libraries the career of which will greatly interest library 
workers in this country. The Newberry Library was 
the first, and now the Crerar Library seems to follow 
in its lead. Great general libraries have hitherto had 
their staff divided into departments according to the 
various classes of library work : there has been a 
catalogue department, a reference department, an ac- 
cession department, and so on. A cataloguer has been 
supposed to have in his head the most minute details of 



every science for cataloguing purposes. The refer- 
ence librarian had to be acquainted with the standard 
literature in all the different branches of human knowl- 
edge. In former times there were such encyclopaedic 
geniuses, who were able to grasp, as it were, the whole 
universe in one birds-eye view. That time is now past 
and gone for ever. Today every special science in- 
cludes more details than the whole field of scientific 
thought did fifty years ago. The librarian who would 
be something more than the go-between of the card 
catalogue and the shelves, who would be able to cata- 
logue and classify a collection of books without con- 
stantly consulting other catalogues, who would be able 
to rely upon his own knowledge, in short, one who 
would treat the library profession as he would one of 
the lines of an educator's work, must specialize. It was 
in recognition of this that the Newberry Library was 
organized as a " departmental " library, and that the 
Crerar Library now seems to be tending in the same 
direction. A couple of years ago, Miss Edith Clarke 
of the Newberry Library gave in the "Library Jour- 
nal " (September, 1891) a very interesting account of 
the working of the departments in the Newberry, and I 
refer the reader to this paper for more detailed inform- 
ation. These libraries are divided into departments of 
science, there will be one department of medicine, one 
of music, one of social sciences, and so on. This plan 
will enable each assistant in the library to become ac- 
quainted with every detail of the technical side of his 
work. In this way, furthermore, he will feel the neces- 
sity, and the possibility, of keeping his specialized 
knowledge up to date. As it is now in most libraries, 
the cataloguer, or the reference librarian, always feels 
the necessity of keeping himself acquainted with all the 
departments of science; and as this is an absolute im- 
possibility, he will either feel that he is not doing, and 
cannot do, his duty as well as he should, or and this 
is perhaps most often the case he will content him- 
self with a certain superficiality, will content himself 
with the scant knowledge he can pick up in looking 
through the current magazines and in glancing over the 
pages of the new books as they come under his eyes. 
In the departmental libraries, and in the special libra- 
ries, all this is changed. The librarian will feel that 
the field of literature with which he is to deal is within 
his grasp. He can pursue studies in the special line 
that interests him, without feeling that there are other 
things that he, in so doing, more or less neglects. In 
Europe, more especially in Germany and in the Scandi- 
navian countries, where, outside of the university libra- 
ries, few libraries of any importance exist, the library 
assistants are all university men ; and the tendency is to 
allow none but graduates (that is, doctors of philosophy 
and their equals) in the profession, because the librarian 
ought to be a specialist in any science and acquainted 
with scientific methods. This can be carried too far. 
The specialist will very often be narrow-minded, and 
in the library field nothing is more needed than men of 
broad minds. The departmental library, while giving 
the advantage of dividing the work on scientific lines, 
will keep the special departments in one organization, 
and thus facilitate the intercourse between the different 
departments. The staff of such a library will acquire 
the character of a university faculty, and this character 
will impose upon the members of the staff the unity of 
the special fields of work in which they are engaged. 

AKSEL G. S. JOSEPHSON. 
Lenox Library, New York City, Jan. 5, 1895. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



43 



Nefo 



MEMORIES OF SEVENTY YEARS.* 



" Threescore and Ten Years " is the title of 
a lively and readable, if at times rather sketchy, 
volume of reminiscences from the pen of Mr. W. 
J. Linton, the well-known engraver. While 
the book is largely a record of the author's 
impressions of the many distinguished people 
he met during his career in England and in 
this country, sufficient data are given to convey 
a fair notion of his own varied past and strong 
personality. Born at London in 1812, Mr. 
Linton was early apprenticed to George Wil- 
mot Bonner, wood engraver ; and wood engrav- 
ing has been, we take it, despite pretty constant 
activity in the fields of authorship, journalism, 
and political and philanthropic agitation, sub- 
stantially his sheet anchor and real calling 
through life. Mr. Linton's journalistic expe- 
rience has been, nevertheless, considerable. In 
18412 he was editor of a Chartist newspaper 
called the " Odd Fellow," and in 1845 of the 
"Illustrated Family Journal," which latter 
sheet he gave up in the same year to succeed 
Douglas Jerrold on the " Illustrated Maga- 
zine." In 1849 he was for a few weeks sub- 
editor, under Thornton Hunt, of the " Spec- 
tator "; and shortly after he joined Hunt in 
starting the " Leader," an ambitious journal 
which was to be " at once an organ of the 
European Republicans and the centre of an 
English republican party, after the manner 
of the National and the Reforms in Paris." 
The " Leader " of which Hunt was chief ed- 
itor, G. H. Lewes literary editor, and our au- 
thor editor for foreign matters did not last 
long. Says Mr. Linton : 

" I had soon to find that Hunt's and Lewes's sympa- 
thies with the Republican party were not to be depended 
on, that they merely wanted to exploit the connection 
for the commercial advantage of the paper . . . which 
led no whither, running, under the capricious direction 
of Hunt and Lewes, like Leigh Hunt's Irishman's pig, 
' up all manner of streets.' " 

As a free-lance journalist, Mr. Linton did 
yeoman service, both in prose and verse, in the 
twin causes of political liberalism and general 
philanthropy ; and he was an active speaker 
and organizer on the popular side during the 
Chartist and similar movements. As an author, 
his credit rests chiefly on an excellent treatise 
on his own art, " The Masters of Wood En- 

* THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS, 1820 to 1890: Recollec- 
tions. By W. J. Linton. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



graving " a work to which, he tells us, is due 
the fact that " the University of Yale has hon- 
ored me by conferring on me the degree of 
Master of Arts." For twenty-seven years Mr. 
Linton has been a resident of this country, a 
trip to the States in 1866 " to organize a party 
for Italy " leading to the more substantial and 
fruitful, if less imposing, result of his perma- 
nent engagement by Frank Leslie to conduct 
the pictorial portion of the " Illustrated News." 
It may be gathered from the foregoing facts 
that Mr. Linton has been a radical, or at least 
an advanced liberal, in politics universal re- 
publicanism of the vague, high-soaring, Giron- 
dist type being his ideal. He is akin, one may 
believe, to the class of minds dominant in the 
latter half of the eighteenth century, whose 
dogmas of human perfectibility and the divine 
right and innate virtue of that masterful ab- 
straction, the "people," nerved men like Robes- 
pierre and Saint Just to the commission of 
Utopian follies which even now, in the face of 
the lessons of 1794, we seem in some danger 
of seeing repeated. Writing of Mr. Linton to 
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy in 1849, Carlyle 
spoke as follows ; and we quote the description , 
not for its presumed literal accuracy, but be- 
cause we all know the sort of man Carlyle would 
be apt to apply it to : 

" Also do not much mind Linton, who is a well- 
enough meaning, but, I fear, extremely windy creature, 
of the Louis Blanc, George Sand, etc., species." 

Were we to try our own hand with the brush, 
we should perhaps paint Mr. Linton as one of 
those amiable and well-intentioned people who, 
seeing everything refracted through the mists 
of their own super-sensibility, make a life bus- 
iness of righting wrong and relieving distress, 
seldom distinguishing between unmerited pains 
and pains that are penalties, knocking the 
shackles off the innocent victim and the con- 
victed gallows-bird alike, and not seldom tak- 
ing their pay, like their immortal type in Cer- 
vantes, in the abuse and ridicule of their cli- 
ents. In revolutionary times Mr. Linton might 
have been a lesser Tom Paine, tempered and 
diluted with the humane vagaries of an Anach- 
arsis Clootz. As times went, he did a vast deal 
of not altogether futile writing, speechifying, 
and organizing, in behalf of oppressed Italians, 
Poles, Irish, of anybody, in short, that ap- 
peared to him to have a grievance, to the no 
small neglect, as he confesses, of his own proper 
work of engraving. 

Passing from our impressions of Mr. Linton 
to his impressions of others, we find a long list 



44 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



of names, eminent or notorious, ranging from 
Herbert Spencer to Mme. Blavatsky ; from 
Carlyle to " Ben " Butler ; from A. Bronson 
Alcott to Mace the pugilist ; from Tennyson 
to Tupper the latter of whom might have 
passed, says Mr. Linton, " as a most respecta- 
ble grocer and possible church-warden "; from 
Swinburne to Robert Montgomery ; from Rus- 
kin (to whom Mr. Linton sold Brantwood) to 
Oeorge Francis Train, whom he once saw mak- 
ing a speech in support of his self-imposed 
Presidential candidacy. Train, he adds, spoke 
fluently and well, though with not much in his 
words. 

" During his speech he went to one end of the plat- 
form, and, taking hold of his nose with one hand, ran 
across the platform to the other end, saying: 'Let my 
nose alone ! ' ' That,' he added, 'is the Democratic party ! ' 
Then, taking his nose with the other hand, he ran back: 
' You, too, let my nose alone ! That is the Republican 
party. I don't mean to be led by the nose by either.' " 

Prominent on the list of Mr. Linton's ac- 
quaintances are Dickens, Landor,Hood, Brown- 
ing, Leech, Rossetti, Mazzini, Cruikshank, 
Hay don, Emerson, Dr. Holmes, Longfellow, 
and others ; and his impressions of these, where 
he chooses to give them, are given with a can- 
dor and an independence of conventional esti- 
mates that is refreshing. Touching Dickens, 
whose " real vocation was as an actor of low 
comedy," who " was not the gentleman," and 
who had " no soul of nobility in him," he quotes 
the following story : 

" When he and Wilkie Collins and Wills (the editor 
of ' Household Words ') went out, taking Dickens's doc- 
tor with them, to eat ' the most expensive dinner they 
<sould get,' it was an action that marked the Amphitryon 
of the feast, if not the others also. It is an unpleasant 
anecdote, but it was told me by the doctor himself, who 
had to prescribe for all three next day." 

It is certainly not a little amusing to think of 
this spiteful satirist of American gluttony and 
neglect of table proprieties thus deliberately 
setting out to gorge himself to the point of 
apoplexy, and taking his doctor along with him 
as a precautionary measure. 

Landor, Mr. Linton never saw, though he 
corresponded with him, and once received, 
through Browning, a dubious token of his re- 
gard in the shape of a picture " supposed to be 
by Michael Angelo." The gift seems to have 
done little more credit to the donor's heart than 
to his connoisseurship : 

" Landor at one time had a large collection of pic- 
tures, supposed to be genuine, but seldom if ever of 
any worth. This ' Angelo ' might be of that sort. I 
called on Browning to look at and to speak about the 
picture. It was a ' Last Judgment,' a poor and very 



unpleasant composition, too large and too unpleasant to 
be hung in a private house, a gift as of a white elephant, 
neither to be accepted nor refused. I got out of the 
difficulty by Browning telling me that the old man had 
no right to give it, as all his ' belongings ' really belonged 
to his brother, Robert Landor, on whom Walter Savage 
was living. So Browning took charge of the elephant 
and relieved me." 

Mr. Linton recalls George Cruikshank as 
" a well-built, good-looking, good-natured man, 
a bluff speaker who could call a spade a spade." 
His bump of reverence must have been poorly 
developed ; for the author remembers him ex- 
claiming, with some impiety, in regard to a 
publisher who had misquoted him in a dispute 
over the price of some work, " My dear sir, the 
publisher is a liar ! " Cruikshank, however, 
seems to have lived, and even flourished, for 
some years after this incident. Speaking of 
Leech, Mr. Linton tells the story of the public 
castigation of one Bernard Gregory, a black- 
guard journalist turned actor, at the hands of 
those he had pilloried in his scandal-mongering 
sheet, " The Satirist." 

" On a certain morning London streets were pla- 
carded with the following notice: 'Gentlemen of Lon- 
don ! Mr. Bernard Gregory, the editor of the " Sat- 
irist," will appear to-night at Covent-Garden Theatre, 
in the character of Hamlet.' The placard had been 
put out by the ' Punch ' contributors, the object suffi- 
ciently obvious: to oppose Gregory, who was notori- 
ous as a rascally blackmailer. John Leech called on 
me in the morning to tell me of their purpose and to 
ask me to go. Of course I went, and took a friend with 
me; and we got forward seats in the pit. Looking 
round I saw a lot of rough fellows who, I concluded, 
were hired as claquers for Gregory, and was not with- 
out fears of a fierce conflict. The curtain drew up, and 
the action of the play began in all serenity ; but so soon 
as Hamlet appeared, an outcry, a burst of execration, 
rose so suddenly, and was so general, that one saw at 
once no opposition could make head against it. Hisses 
and hootings, cries of ' Off ! Off ! Blackguard ! Scoun- 
drel ! ' and the like, were hurled at the actor; and the 
whole performance was stopped. Nothing was thrown 
except the storm of vociferation. Gregory faced it 
awhile, undauntedly impudent, then tried to make his 
voice heard in protest, but it was drowned in the roar 
of indignation. ... At length he gave in, and as the 
curtain came down he seemed to cower and crouch be- 
neath. Then the manager came forward to withdraw 
the piece, and the conspirators went out to moisten their 
parched throats. Leech was hoarse for days." 

An amusing afterpiece to this tragi-comedy 
was the appearance of the noted pugilist, Jem 
Mace, as a witness in the suit for conspiracy 
brought by Gregory against the Duke of Bruns- 
wick, who, having been grossly assailed in 
" The Satirist," took a leading part in the riot. 
Mace, too, had been present and prominently 
active. 

" He did not deny the part he had taken, but denied 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



45 



having been hired for the conspiracy. He was asked: 
' What made you active in such a matter ? what inter- 
est had you in it ? ' His interest, he replied, in public 
morality; he could not help protesting against such a 
man disgracing the stage or words to that effect. The 
judge complimented him, and said he was glad to find 
so much public spirit in the parish in which he had his 
own residence." 

It is to be regretted that the tide of journalistic 
scurrility has even in England since risen to 
such a point that even the professional prow- 
ess of the high-minded Mr. Mace would be as 
the broom of Mrs. Partington to the Atlantic 
against it. 

Hastily running over a few of Mr. Linton's 
briefer characterizations, we find Bronson Al- 
cott set down as " a strange, mystical, gentle 
old philosopher, very gracious, very wordy, 
rather incomprehensible "; Walt Whitman as 
" a fine-natured, good-hearted, big fellow, a 
true poet who could not write poetry, much of 
wilfulness accounting for his neglect of form, 
perhaps ^s fatal a mistake in a poet as in a 
painter "; Mme. Blavatsky as " a fat, vulgar- 
looking woman, not, one could not help think- 
ing, at all likely to be mistaken for a prophet- 
ess, no sibyl, but a veritable old witch, with 
nothing venerable about her "; Mr. Stoddard 
as " the highest poetic genius now living in 
America "; Mr. Swinburne (in 1861) as " a 
young man looking like a boy, and with a boy- 
ish manner, jumping about as he became ex- 
cited in speaking, yet interesting and attract- 
ive "; Place, the " Westminster tailor," as a 
"fierce Malthusian with a large family"; Ros- 
setti as " an Italian of the time of the Medici, 
not without thoughts and superstitions of that 
period, a man of genius both in art and liter- 
ature, one, however, hindering the other, the 
literary predominating, and by which he will 
be best recollected "; and Harriet Martineau 
as " a good-looking, interesting old lady, very 
deaf, but cheerful and eager for news, which 
she did not always catch correctly." Of Miss 
Martineau Mr. Linton adds : 

" With all her manly self-dependence and strict inten- 
tional honesty, with all her credit for practical common 
sense, she was as much a poet as her brother, the Rev. 
James; a romancer even in the region of economical 
facts, even in those hard ' Poor Law Tales,' when under 
Lord Brougham she was preparing to prove the neces- 
sity for the Poor Law Amendment Act, that crowning 
harshness of Whig rule. She has never had justice done 
to her on this ground of romance." 

In his chapter on American poets Mr. Lin- 
ton quotes a letter from Whittier, written in 
reply to his request for the exact date of the 
latter's birth, to which we beg to call the at- 



tention of the poet's excellent biographer, Mr. 
Pickard. Mr. Pickard gives the date as " the 
17th of December, 1807 "; but we find Whit- 
tier writing : " My birthday was the very last of 
the year 1807." 

Mr. Linton's book is, as we have tried to 
show, lively, pleasantly discursive, and strongly 
individual in tone, its main fault being an oc- 
casional tendency to run reminiscence into a 
mere list of notable names. The pages on the 
Chartist agitation, its aims, its incidents, and 
its heroes, are of stable interest. Materially, the 
volume is a tasteful one ; and there is a fine 
portrait of the author, showing a most kindly 
and venerable face truly " a face like a bene- 
diction." E. G. J. 



THE WAY OF THE GODS IN JAPAN.* 

To an audience of Athenians on Mars' Hill, 
Paul said : " Ye men of Athens, I perceive 
that in all things ye are altogether supersti- 
tious." One might likewise stand before an 
audience of Japanese and say : " Ye men of 
Nippon, I perceive that in all things ye are alto- 
gether superstitious." For most faithfully and 
devoutly do the mass of the Japanese worship 
their innumerable deities, estimated with the 
indefinite expression, " eighty myriads." And 
the relation between men and gods there is so 
familiar that the former, when calling the lat- 
ter to receive homage and hear prayer, use the 
same method, the clapping of the hands, that 
is employed in summoning servants. Thus, in 
Japan, deities are treated like domestics ; in 
America, domestics conduct themselves as if 
they were deities ! And these Japanese gods 
are so numerous, so ubiquitous, and so demo- 
cratic, that Mr. Percival Lowell, in his new 
book on " Occult Japan," is " tempted to in- 
clude them in the census, and to consider the 
population of Japan as composed of natives, 
globe-trotters, and gods." 

It was in an unexpected and strange way that 
Mr. Lowell himself, though a Western " bar- 
barian," got into the presence of the gods, and, 
after that introduction, was enabled to culti- 
vate their acquaintance. He was ascending, 
for recreation, a sacred mount, named Ontake, 
when he fell in with three pilgrims, and became 
an uninvited spectator of a series of esoteric rites 
of divine incarnation. This interesting revela- 
tion led him into further investigation, and re- 



* OCCULT JAPAN ; or, The Way of the Gods : An Esoteric 
Study of Japanese Personality and Possession. By Percival 
Lowell. Illustrated. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



suited in a series of papers on " Esoteric Shinto," 
read before the Asiatic Society of Japan and 
published in the " Transactions " of that body. 
These papers, revised, together with about a 
hundred additional pages and four illustrations, 
make up " Occult Japan," which is a very in- 
teresting and valuable contribution to the study 
of folk-lore, anthropology, and comparative re- 
ligion. 

This book contains a minute description of 
several " miracles," such as " the ordeal of boil- 
ing water," " walking bare-foot over a bed of 
live coals," "climbing a ladder of sword-blades," 
" the descent of the thunder-god " into a kettle 
of boiling rice, "calling down fire from heaven " 
to light the tobacco in a pipe, etc. The last 
two were absolute " fakes "; but the first three 
were actually performed in Mr. Lowell's pres- 
ence. The theory of the Japanese with refer- 
ence to miracles is that they can be performed 
only by those who are absolutely pure in body 
and heart, and who, to obtain that purity, have 
gone through with certain sacred rites. But 
that theory was demolished when Mr. Lowell's 
" boy " suddenly jumped out of the audience 
and climbed the ladder of sword-blades. The 
successful performance of these miracles is as- 
cribed by Mr. Lowell to two things " a thicker 
skin in the priests [the performers] and a 
thicker skull in the people." And it seems 
quite probable that " doubtless credulity is the 
mother of miracles, but doubtless, also, with 
the far eastern family of them, a pachyderma- 
tous sole step-fathers the process. For most 
of them are questions of cuticle." 

From the miracle of walking barefoot on live 
coals an interesting "moral " has been evolved, 
and is thus explained by the high priest : 

" The object of the rite is that the populace may see 
that the god when duly besought can take away the 
burning spirit of fire while permitting the body of it to 
remain. For so can he do with the hearts of men; the 
bad spirit may be driven out and the good put in its 
place while still the man continues to exist." 

About one-third of the book is given up to 
the subject of " incarnations," or " possession 
by the gods." In order to enjoy a divine visit, 
human beings must be pure ; and the two chief 
exercises that induce purity are washings and 
fasting, " ablution and abstinence." There are 
three forms in accordance with which a relig- 
ious trance is brought on ; the elaborate Rybbu 
ceremony, employed by those who have fol- 
lowed that confused mixture of Buddhism and 
Shinto ; the pure Buddhist ceremony, which is 
peculiar in that " the god shows a preference 



for feminine lips "; and the pure Shinto cere- 
mony, which is plain and simple, and lacks the 
excessive ritual of the other two. The details 
of all these forms are fully described, and a 
very careful comparison is made by Mr. Lowell. 
It is impossible to summarize this portion of his 
book, which must be read in toto ; but it is pos- 
sible to quote a characteristic passage or two : 

" It [the pure Shinto ceremony] is nothing more or 
less than a divine banquet, with the god himself for an 
after-dinner speaker. The dinner is all-essential to the 
affair, as it is to all Shinto rites. For the Shinto prac- 
tice of dining its deities is not confined to the ceremony 
of possession. Wherever the gods are invoked, for any 
cause whatsoever, they are induced to descend by the 
prospect of a dinner. A repast stands perpetually pre- 
pared on all Shinto altars ; shrines being, to put it irrev- 
erently, free-lunch counters for deity, while every Shinto 
service is but a special banquet given some particular 
god. One comes to conceive of a Shinto god's life as 
one continuous round of dining out. To induce an after- 
dinner mood in a god whom one wishes to propitiate is 
doubtless judicious." 

" But such [shams] are easily exploded. An unex- 
pected pin in a tender part of the possessed's body 
instantly does the business. For a god is sublimely su- 
perior to being made a pin-cushion of, while a mere man 
invariably objects to it." 

A chapter is devoted to pilgrimages and pil- 
grim clubs. The former are called " peripa- 
tetic picnic parties, faintly flavored with piety "; 
and yet, with reference to Shinto, are " more 
than foot-notes to its creed." The pilgrim clubs 
are " not an imported institution, but a custom 
indigenous to Japan "; they contain generally 
a membership of from one hundred to five hun- 
dred persons, while the largest club has about 
twelve thousand members. These clubs are 
regularly officered and carefully managed ; and 
they send on the annual pilgrimages represen- 
tatives chosen by lot. The pilgrimage to Ise, 
where " there is nothing to see, and they won't 
let you see it," is made in spring, " when the 
cherries blow "; other pilgrimages are made in 
midsummer ; and at both seasons pilgrims and 
pilgrim clubs have " the right of way." 

In the last hundred pages of the book is given 
a metaphysical discussion of hypnotism, trances, 
etc., with special reference to " things Japanese." 
There is an analysis of certain Japanese mental 
characteristics, such as lack of originality, un- 
common imitativeness, absence of reasoning, 
general incapacity for abstract ideas, and de- 
corous demeanor. There is also an application 
of the thought of the caviller who changed 
Pope's well-known verse into the statement 

" An honest god 's the noblest work of man." 

For Mr. Lowell says of people's gods : 

" In their characters generally you shall see reflected 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



47 



the race characteristics. In Japan the gods are emi- 
nently Japanese. They are dignified, artistic, simple 
souls, of the most exceptional deportment. Their life 
is made up of one long chain of ornamental, if some- 
what conventional, moments." 

And, of course, the man who wrote " The Soul 
of the Far East " to prove that the Japanese, 
Chinese, and Koreans have no " soul," no per- 
sonality, no individuality, finds in these relig- 
ious trances additional proof of that idea, and 
also of " a curiously conceived impersonal kind 
of deity." 

En passant, Mr. Lowell gives the following 
opinion of Buddhism : 

" Emotionally its tenets do not at bottom satisfy us 
occidentals, flirt with them as we may. Passivity is not 
our passion, preach it as we are prone to do each to his 
neighbor. Scientifically, pessimism is foolishness, and 
impersonality a stage in development from which we 
are emerging, not one into which we shall ever relapse. 
As a dogma it is unfortunate, doing its devotee in the 
deeper sense no good, but it becomes positively faulty 
when it leads to practical ignoring of the mine and 
thine, and does other people harm." 

Having recently been treated to Mr. Hearn's 
analysis of Shinto, we are delighted to have Mr. 
Lowell give his idea of what Shinto is : 

" To foreign students . . . Shinto has seemed little 
better than the ghost of a belief, far too insubstantial 
a body of faith to hold a heart. To ticket its gods and 
pigeon-hole its folk-lore has appeared to be the end of 
a study of its cult." 

" Shinto is the Japanese conception of the cosmos. 
It is a combination of the worship of nature and of their 
own ancestors. . . . To the Japanese eye, the universe 
itself took on the paternal look. Awe of their parents, 
which these people could comprehend, lent explanation 
to dread of nature, which they could not. Quite co- 
gently, to their minds, the thunder and the typhoon, the 
sunshine and the earthquake, were the work not only 
of anthropomorphic beings, but of beings ancestrally 
related to themselves. In short, Shinto ... is simply 
the patriarchal principle projected without perspective 
into the past, dilating with distance into deity." [Rather 
excessively alliterative ! ] 

" Shinto is thus an adoration of family wraiths, or of 
imputed family wraiths; imaginaries of the first and 
the second order in the analysis of the universe." 

" Shinto is so Japanese it will not down. It is the 
faith of these people's birthright, not of their adoption. 
Its folk-lore is what they learned at the knee of the 
race-mother, not what they were taught from abroad. 
Buddhist they are by virtue of belief; Shinto by virtue 
of being." 

In the December (1894) issue of " The Pop- 
ular Science Monthly " a scholarly Japanese 
gives his definition of Shinto as a religion of 
personal purity, of " merry-making," of " nai've 
optimism." We now await with interest Dr. 
Griffis's analyses of Shinto, Buddhism, and 
Confucianism, in his coming work on " The Re- 
ligions of Japan." ^ ,, r ~. 

ERNEST W. CLEMENT, 



EARLY LONDON THEATRES.* 



Mr. T. Fairman Ordish's volume on " Early 
London Theatres " purports to be a " theatrical 
history," a study of playhouses rather than 
plays, except where the latter are found to throw 
some fresh light on the evolution of the stage and 
the appurtenances. In spite of the author's anti- 
quarian professions, there is a gratuitous and 
delightful strand of literary allusion running 
through the book, finally widening and expand- 
ing into a discussion of Henslowe's Diary, dis- 
tinguished autographs, Ben Jonson's duel and 
the various appearances of his and Shake- 
speare's plays, all of which is, to the average 
mind, more interesting than the bulk of the 
volume, and, indeed, is of a certain importance 
in establishing the topographical and archae- 
ological points in view. " Rare old Ben " comes 
in edgewise, with a frequency that needs, per- 
haps, no excuse when it is recalled how he bullies 
posterity for recognition. Though a tolerably 
good biography of him could be picked up along 
the way, there are other obiter dicta which are 
tantalizingly brief. Mr. Ordish has a way of 
postponing many elusive matters till the " end 
of the chapter," or " the second volume " 
which, we hasten to say, will treat more espe- 
cially of the Shakespearian theatres, Black- 
friars and The Globe. The omission of these 
for the present is justified by the fact that the 
earliest playhouses were erected outside the 
town " in the fields," owing to the " official 
war " that was waged against them as " simi- 
naries of impiety." 

After describing the scaffolds and stages 
made in the streets for the representations of 
plays, before theatres were constructed, and ad- 
vancing the theory that the amphitheatres south 
of London and in Cornwall, where national 
sports and pastimes were cultivated, had more 
effect in determining the configuration of the 
early British theatre than did the arrangement 
of churches and their much-exploited miracle- 
plays and moralities, Mr. Ordish considers in 
seven chapters The Theatre, the first London 
playhouse, where Marlowe's " Faustus " and 
the old pre - Shakespearian "Hamlet" were 
given ; The Curtain, which had the longest 
existence of all the London playhouses, and was 
associated, probably, with the first " Romeo " 
and " Every Man in his Humour "; the Sur- 
rey side, with its Tabard Inn and residences 

* EARLY LONDON THEATRES (In the Fields). By T. Fair- 
man Ordish, F.S.A. " The Camden Library." London : 
Elliot Stock. New York ; Macmillan & Co, 



48 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



of actors ; the amphitheatres with movable 
stages and bear-baitings (a Spanish ambassa- 
dor's graphic description, p. 131); the New- 
ington Butts, with its "unrecorded dramatic 
history," The Rose, Hope Theatre, Paris Gar- 
den, and The Swan. The last chapter is a 
decided contribution to antiquarian research. 
As the author claims, " the upshot is practi- 
cally to rescue from oblivion another of the old 
playhouses." The volume is replete with maps, 
illustrations, and reproductions of old prints ; 
and it is agreeably indexed. Abundant ac- 
knowledgments are made to the previous in- 
vestigations of Rendle and Halliwell-Phillipps. 

A glance through these chapters reveals anew 
how essential was the theatre to the social de- 
velopment of England. Only in the churches 
and in the playhouses did all sections of Eliz- 
abethan society meet ; and Sunday was the day 
set apart for the one as for the other, indeed, 
bear-baitings occurred regularly "on the Son- 
dayes in the afternone after divine service." 
"The people had become accustomed to the 
stimulus and pleasure of dramatic representa- 
tions; and not the long tramp to Finsbury 
Fields, not the roughness displayed by the 
groundlings nor the fact that idle and disso- 
lute characters inevitably haunted the play- 
house, nor even the real and terrible danger of 
the plague, could turn the Elizabethan play- 
goer from the pastime he loved." The city 
fathers little realized that the theatre was the 
outcome of the public sports which had been 
cultivated under their sanction and encourage- 
ment for many generations. Their repressive 
measures are less interesting to read about, be- 
cause less picturesque, than the diatribes of the 
clergy of the period. The offensive vituper- 
ation thrown off in the white heat of Puritan 
indignation, the inflated conviction of the pul- 
pit that " the door of a play-house was equiv- 
alent to hell-mouth," is pictured in the racy 
sermonic extracts collated by Mr. Ordish, and 
furnishes a convenient connecting link between 
Tertullian and Dr. Herrick Johnson. 

The lover of theatrical gossip will here find 
many trivial but spicy incidents tucked away 
amid much learning. He will read, with a mod- 
ern zest which finally erases the gap of three 
hundred years, that " apparently such a thing as 
a poorhouse was unknown at the first London 
theatre; and assuredly the prices were pop- 
ular "; that Nash's " Pierce Penilesse " was 
witnessed by " ten thousand spectators at 
least"; that The Theatre was finally taken down 
piece by piece and carried bodily to Bankside, 



where "with the sayd timber and wood" was 
erected the famous Globe. He will follow the 
ancient rivalries between The Theatre and The 
Curtain, The Globe and The Rose, as if he 
knew the several managers. He will finger 
the copper lace charged to the actors on Hens- 
lowe's books. He will receive instructive hints 
as to certain scenes from Shakespeare, as 
when he reads : " You may be sure the wrest- 
ling match in 'As You Like It' was no child's 
play or stage business, but was watched with 
critical attention ; for it was an element brought 
into the play from the life of the people. . . . 
The existence of the playhouse implied a more 
highly organized celebration of the national 
plays and games." Thus the volume possesses 
an interest to the general reader as well as to 
the antiquarian. Its style is readable and pains- 
taking. It will doubtless be an authoritative 
reference-book on the subject of London play- 

houses ' G. M. HYDE. 



BOPES'S HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR.* 



Mr. Ropes has undertaken his " Story of the 
Civil War " in the spirit of the true historian. 
His plan, as stated by himself, is "to write of 
the subjects treated from the standpoint of each 
of the contending parties." " In my judg- 
ment," he adds, " the war should not be so de- 
picted as to imply that the North and the South 
differed and quarreled about the same things. 
This was not the fact. The questions presented 
to the men of the North were not the same as 
those with which their Southern contemporaries 
had to deal." Whether or not we fully agree with 
this last statement, it is evident that this book 
is not written in the interest of either combatant 
or of any theory. A vast mass of material for 
the history of the war has been contributed in 
the form of personal experiences and partisan 
accounts. We are now far enough away from 
the passions of the time to allow both scholarly 
writing and unprejudiced reading about the 
great struggle. 

Though claiming to be simply a narrative of 
the military events of the war, this first volume, 
at least, is largely taken up with a description 
of the political situation in 1860 and 1861, and 
the inter-relations of politics and the military 
plans and operations. Mr. Ropes first contrasts 

* THE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. A Concise Account of 
the War in the United States of America between 1861 and 
1865. By John Codman Ropes. Part I. To the Opening of 
the Campaign of 1862. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



49 



the views of the sections as to the relation of the 
States and the Nation. The South claimed and 
believed that the United States was not a single 
nation, but a collection of nations, united by a 
treaty known as the Constitution. Though the 
question has been settled now adversely to this 
position, it was honestly maintained by the vast 
majority of the men of the South, and formed 
the basis of their political thought and action ; 
from it the right of Secession naturally fol- 
lowed. The North as honestly believed that 
the United States, whatever they may have 
been in 1789, constituted but one nation in 
1861, and so denied the right of Secession as 
destructive of the nation they loved. These 
differences were irreconcilable. The Southern- 
ers were fighting for the integrity of their na- 
tions against ruthless Northern aggression ; the 
Northerners fought to preserve the integrity of 
the nation they loved. The conflict was such 
as to kindle the patriotic feelings of both the 
contending parties. And though the North 
considered the war a Rebellion, it was in fact 
a war between nations, a war of conquest, and 
was so waged. It was not a rising for the re- 
dress of grievances, with two parties corre- 
sponding to the Patriots and the Loyalists of 
the Revolution ; it was substantially a unani- 
mous rising in behalf of their imperilled na- 
tions, and as such was a patriotic war. This 
may be a rather strong putting of the actual 
case, yet there is enough foundation for it to 
free from the moral guilt of treason those who 
resigned from the Federal service to go with 
their States. It was their duty to go with their 
States, if they believed their allegiance to be- 
long there first ; and the treatment which the 
Southern leaders received, whether as prison- 
ers or after their defeat, corresponded with this 
view. 

The question of the Southern forts is taken 
up in the second chapter ; and here, as on the 
general question of the War, Mr. Ropes de- 
clares that the positions of the parties were so 
utterly opposed that all criticism of one from 
the standpoint of the other is illegitimate and 
valueless. What the positions were can be 
readily inferred from the general theories above 
noted. But in any case the seizure was really 
an act of war which was thus begun before 
any hostile act had been committed by the na- 
tional government and justifiable only as a 
necessity in view of impending war. In dis- 
cussing the reinforcement of Fort Sumter, Mr. 
Ropes seems to criticize rather harshly Major 
Anderson's failure to ask for more troops, in 



view of the hostile preparations making against 
the fort by South Carolina, and especially 
because he used the words " my policy " in 
speaking of his disinclination to precipitate the 
outbreak of open hostilities. He gave the gov- 
ernment full information as to his situation ; he 
had been given full discretion ; if the govern- 
ment had wished to press matters to a conclu- 
sion, it was open to it to do so. The respon- 
sibility should and does rest upon the govern- 
ment at the centre, where broad plans were to 
be matured, rather than on a subordinate offi- 
cer immured within the narrow walls of a fort- 
ress. Besides, Mr. Ropes acknowledges that 
the outcome was better, all responsibility for 
the outbreak being thrown upon the South, and 
in such a way as to evoke a most astonishing 
outburst of patriotic enthusiasm throughout the 
North when Sumter fell. 

One notes with interest, and with a query, 
the author's statement that the men of the 
South had greater aptitude for war than their 
opponents. They loved it, and entered upon 
it with the enthusiasm that brings success. 
To the men of the North, on the other hand, 
war was wholly distasteful ; they went into it 
wholly from a sense of duty, but with a grim 
determination to win, and to punish those who 
were to blame for it. The several advantages 
and disadvantages of the respective sections are 
clearly described. 

The chapter on the Battle of Bull Run is 
perhaps the best in the book. Here the au- 
thor's peculiar skill as a military historian and 
critic shows itself. Without loading his de- 
scription with detail, he has clearly presented 
the plans of the commanders, the disposition of 
the respective forces, and the movement of the 
battle, in a masterly way ; and his criticisms 
seem just. The defeat of the Northern forces 
he considers a deserved punishment for the 
folly of the administration in forcing an ag- 
gressive battle with raw levies, when nothing 
of permanent importance was to be gained by 
victory. 

We pass over the discussion of plans and 
preparations in East and West, to note Mr. 
Ropes's estimates of some of the prominent 
characters of the war. General Buell he con- 
siders the ablest soldier by far that the period 
produced, equal to McClellan as an organizer 
and disciplinarian, far superior " in military 
sagacity, in clear and unprejudiced vision, and 
in decision of character." Buell's comprehen- 
sive plan of operations was rejected by Lincoln 
and McClellan on one side and Halleck on the 



50 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



other, only to be followed at last when its wis- 
dom had been proved by the failure of the rival 
plans. Only a part of McClellan's melancholy 
career belongs to the period covered by this 
volume, but the great change from unbounded 
popularity and confidence to distrust and dis- 
satisfaction appears long before the campaign 
of 1862 is entered upon. Mr. Ropes does not 
blame McClellan for deferring extensive oper- 
ations against the enemy until spring, for he 
considers the army unready for a great aggres- 
sive campaign without long drill and the devel- 
opment of a true military spirit. But he does 
blame him for his neglect of opportunities for 
easily recovering the confidence of the country 
and improving the spirit of his troops, for his 
indecision and lack of enterprise, for his flat dis- 
obedience of orders in leaving Washington insuf- 
ficiently protected when he transferred his army 
to the Peninsula, and especially for his unfortun- 
ate tendency to be governed by his imagination, 
which was uncommonly active, rather than by 
common sense. Referring to his insistence 
upon Buell's movement into East Tennessee 
against disadvantages amounting almost to im- 
possibilities, the author says : 

" Nothing shows more clearly the imaginative side of 
McClellan's mind, and his absolute inability to take any 
interest in or bestow any careful thought upon any sub- 
ject that did not appeal to his imagination, than this 
curious letter. . . . But it is plain that none of these 
things [the difficulties] even entered the mind of Gen- 
eral McClellan. His head was full of his own campaign 
in Virginia, and nothing interested him that was not, 
or might not be supposed in some way to be, related to 
his own operations there. And, as a sort of justification 
for his decision, he had conjured up before his imagin- 
ation a vision of an eager and grateful population, in 
half of the States of the Confederacy, flocking to the 
Union standard as soon as it should be unfurled on the 
mountains of East Tennessee, and of ' immense results ' 
therefrom arising." 

And elsewhere he says : 

" McClellan's imagination was, in fact, always carry- 
ing him away from the facts before him, always induc- 
ing him to see things in distorted shapes and some- 
times, as we shall see later, impelling him to do things 
which he would not have done had he from the first 
resolutely determined never to let himself be ruled by 
his fancies and his prejudices." 

Mr. Ropes's treatment of President Lincoln 
is unsympathetic, and, perhaps unconsciously, 
depreciatory. " Puerile impatience," " singu- 
lar orders," " this extraordinary production," 
" this is really ludicrous in its minimizing of the 
facts of the situation [of his proclamation after 
the fall of Fort Sumter]," "Mr. Lincoln's 
serious defects as an administrator, as a man 
of affairs," "futile and useless suggestions," 



" lack of confidence and of ordinary courtesy," 
such are the terms in which he allows him- 
self to speak of the President and his acts, 
while speaking admiringly only of his political 
sagacity. The facts he himself presents do not 
seem to warrant the expressions used ; while 
the full history of the times, as it is disclosed, 
only increases our admiration for him who bore 
the crushing burden of the government, and 
places him higher upon the world's calendar 
of really great men. 

We have reason to be grateful to Mr. Ropes 
for this work, and shall look for the remaining 
volumes with keen expectation. It is in the 
best sense popular, being clear, untechnical, 
free from confusing details, and at the same 
time based on ample research and written in a 
judicial spirit. 



RECENT FICTION.* 



Mr. Charles Dudley Warner has for many years 
been an Institution in American letters, and almost 
any sort of good work was to be expected of him. 
But with all his reputation to back it, the excellence 
of " A Little Journey in the World," published about 
five years ago, and making its author for the first 
time a novelist, was something of a surprise even 
to those most familiar with his writings. It was so 
unexpectedly good in so many ways, in its shrewd 

*THE GOLDEN HOUSE. A Novel. By Charles Dudley 
Warner. New York : Harper & Brothers. 

JOHN MARCH, SOUTHERNER. By George W. Cable. New 
York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 

WHEN ALL THE WOODS ARE GREEN. A Novel. By S. 
Weir Mitchell, M.D., LL.D. New York : The Century Co. 

THE HONORABLE PETER STIRLING, and What People 
Thought of Him. By Paul Leicester Ford. New York: 
Henry Holt & Co. 

THE DOUBLE EMPEROR. A Story of a Vagabond Cunarder. 
By W. Laird Clowes. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. 

CENTURIES APART. By Edward T. Bouve". Boston : Little, 
Brown, & Co. 

THE LILAC SUNBONNET. A Love Story. By S. R. Crockett. 
New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST. By H. Rider Haggard. New 
York : Longmans, Green, & Co. 

THE GOD IN THE CAR. A Novel. By Anthony Hope. 
New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

THE INDISCRETION OF THE DUCHESS. By Anthony Hope. 
New York : Henry Holt & Co. 

AMYGDALA. A Tale of the Greek Revolution. By Mrs. 
Edmonds. New York : Macmillan & Co. 

SIBYLLA. By Sir H. S. Cunningham, K.C.I.E. New York : 
Macmillan & Co. 

LOURDES. By Emile Zola. Translated by Ernest A. Viz- 
etelly. Chicago : F. Tennyson Neely. 

EYES LIKE THE SEA. By Mauras JcSkai. Translated from 
the Hungarian by R. Nisbet Bain. New York : G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons. 

SYNNOVE SOLBAKKEN. By Bjb'rnstjerne Bjornson. Given 
in English by Julie Suiter. New York : Macmillan & Co. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



51 



observation and kindly satire, in the unwonted fin- 
ish of its style and the delicacy of its characteriza- 
tion, best of all, in its persistent exaltation of cer- 
tain old-fashioned ideals of conduct and conceptions 
of life that are apt to get crowded below the hori- 
zon of such men of the world as Mr. Warner. This 
is the eternal difficulty in fiction. The young writer 
may have the fine enthusiasms and the first literary 
instincts, but he is only beginning his acquaintance 
with life, and he cannot describe it with force and 
discernment. On the other hand, the writer who 
knocks about in the world rarely escapes the con- 
tagion of its slow stain, and most often comes to 
know life only at the expense of the freshness of 
his ideals. It was because Mr. Warner, in his first 
attempt at extended fiction-writing, seemed to show 
that it was possible to avoid impalement upon the 
horn of this dilemma, to prove that the mellow- 
ness of experience might be gained without loss of 
faith in the nobler human impulses, it was for these 
reasons that the story was notable. We are justi- 
fied in making these remarks about an old book in 
a review of " Recent Fiction " for the simple reason 
that they are quite as applicable to one of the new- 
est of novels to " The Golden House," which is, 
in fact, a continuation of the story published five 
years ago. Here is traced for us the career of Hen- 
derson from his second marriage to his death. 
Wealthier and wealthier he grows, and with each 
step gained recedes farther and farther from the 
reach of our sympathies. No one recognizes better 
than himself the uselessness and hopelessness of the 
whole struggle, but he cannot shape his character 
anew. The fierce excitement of the earlier stages 
in his career of worldly success has long since sub- 
sided, and he continues to amass wealth only by a 
sort of dull instinct, and because there is nothing 
else in the world for him to do. Finally, death 
strikes him unexpectedly, and he passes from the 
scene unmourned, save by those whose selfish inter- 
ests are jeopardized by his undiscounted taking-off. 
But the sympathy that we cannot feel for Hender- 
son finds among the other characters ample scope 
for action. There are the self-sacrificing workers 
among the slums for Mr. Warner makes effective 
use of the contrast between the New York of fash- 
ion and frivolity and the New York of toil and de- 
gradation and there is the heroine of the story, 
Edith Delancey, who keeps her soul sweet and pure 
amidst the enervating and corrupting influences of 
her environment, and whose love finally prevails to 
save her husband's weaker soul from ruin. Mr. 
Warner's style is at its mellowest and best in this 
novel. How good it is, and how delicately it can 
satirize the foibles of the society that its master has 
had so much practice in delineating, must be illus- 
trated by one short extract. 

" Edith's day had been as busy as Jack's, notwith- 
standing she had put aside several things that demanded 
her attention. She denied herself the morning attend- 
ance on the Literature Class that was raking over the 
eighteenth century. This week Swift was to be ar- 



raigned. The last time when Edith was present it was 
Steele. The judgment, on the whole, had been favor- 
able, and there had been a little stir of tenderness among 
the bonnets over Thackeray's comments on the Christian 
soldier. It seemed to bring him near to them. ' Poor Dick 
Steele,' said the essayist. Edith declared afterwards 
that the large woman who sat next to her, Mrs. Jerry 
Hollowell, whispered to her that she always thought his 
name was Bessemer; but this was, no doubt, a pleas- 
antry. It was a beautiful essay, and so stimulating ! 
And then there was bouillon, and time to look about at 
the toilets. Poor Steele, it would have cheered his life 
to know that a century after his death so many beauti- 
ful women, exquisitely dressed, would have been con- 
cerning themselves about him. The function lasted two 
hours. Edith made a little calculation. In five min- 
utes she could have got from the encyclopaedia all the 
facts in the essay, and while her maid was doing her 
hair she could have read five times as much of Steele 
as the essayist read. And, somehow, she was not stim- 
ulated, for the impression seemed to prevail that now 
Steele was disposed of. And she had her doubts whether 
literature would, after all, prove to be a permanent so- 
cial distraction. But Edith may have been too severe 
in her judgment. There was probably not a woman in 
the class that day who did not go away with the knowl- 
edge that Steele was an author, and that he lived in the 
eighteenth century. The hope of the country is in the 
diffusion of knowledge." 

The name of Thackeray occurs in the above extract ; 
let us take the hint, and say at once that Thackeray 
himself could not have done . this particular thing 
any better than Mr. Warner has done it. A final 
word must be given to Mr. W. T. Smedley's illus- 
trations, which are conspicuously excellent, both for 
drawing and for sympathy. Writer and artist would 
appear to have seen the same things with the same 
eyes, so complete is the understanding between them. 

It is a pleasure to welcome Mr. Cable the novel- 
ist once more, for reasons both positive and negative. 
The positive reason is, of course, that Mr. Cable is 
one of the half dozen best writers of fiction that 
America has produced ; the negative reason is that 
in re-welcoming the novelist we may hope to have 
seen the last of the doctrinaire writer upon the great 
Race Question of the New South. Let Mr. Cable 
incorporate that question into his novels as much as 
he will (and he has made considerable use of it in the 
present instance), but he will do well to avoid it as a 
subject for further serious discussion. " John March, 
Southerner " is the story of a young man who was 
born in the late fifties, and who thus grew up to 
manhood during the period of reconstruction. We 
first meet him as a child at the time of Lee's sur- 
render, and we part with him in early manhood, a 
citizen of the New South of our own days. This 
scheme enables the writer to place before our eyes 
a series of graphic pictures, enlivened by humor, 
pathos, and dramatic episode, of the typical phases 
in the emergence of the new regime from the old. 
There is first the blank despair of defeat, then the 
slowly reawakening will, then the advent of the 
carpet-bagger and the hideous period of negro mis- 
rule ; last of all, there is the acceptance of the new 



52 



[Jan. 16, 



conditions, the recognition by the superior race of 
its responsibilities accompanied by the reassertion 
of its intelligence, and the effort to develope the 
material resources of a land lagging half a century 
behind the rest of civilization. This is the series 
of pictures that Mr. Cable has drawn for us, and 
illustrated by types of character appropriate to the 
scene. It is true that the pictures are too often 
mere flash-light photographs, which leave us be- 
wildered in the endeavor to connect them in logical 
sequence, and that the broad general outlines of the 
characters are not readily decipherable ; but the book 
contains such a wealth of happily conceived detail, 
and so hurries us on from one pleasant surprise to 
another, that we are not disposed to criticize very 
harshly its failure to impress the reader as a har- 
monious and well -cemented whole. Besides, all 
readers of Mr. Cable's other novels know that this 
is precisely the failure most characteristic of their 
author. 

" When All the Woods Are Green " is a sweet 
and wholesome story of love and adventure in the 
forests of Eastern Canada. Three weeks of camp- 
ing and salmon-fishing, enjoyed by a family party 
on the one hand, and an adventitious young man on 
the other, furnish the sufficient setting for this tale. 
It need hardly be added that the family of campers 
provides a suitable heroine, and that the young man 
in question becomes less and less adventitious as 
the story runs on. The element of adventure is 
supplied, first by an opportune bear, and later by 
an attempt at murder on the part of one of the 
natives. But neither the bear nor the native is per- 
mitted to introduce an element of tragedy into the 
situation, although the latter comes dangerously 
near doing so. It may be objected that too book- 
ish a character is often given to the conversation, 
and occasional verbal infelicities, such as the objec- 
tionable preposition " onto " and the equally objec- 
tionable adverb " illy," may be pointed out. But 
these are trifling defects in a narrative which is 
charmingly set forth as a whole, and which displays 
remarkable powers of quiet incisive characterization. 
There is an even excellence about this, as about all 
of Dr. Mitchell's literary work, which makes minute 
criticism captious, and which, combined with light- 
ness of touch, and sympathetic handling of the ma- 
terial, makes us feel that we are in good company, 
and wish that the acquaintance might be prolonged. 

When the Great American Novel shall have been 
born and we hope some day to chronicle that 
happy occurrence it will become interesting to 
trace its spiritual genesis, not merely in the mind 
and heart of its creator, but in the antecedent liter- 
ature which shall have been tending toward so great 
a consummation. Many earlier attempts, to our 
present purblind vision seemingly abortive, will then 
be seen to have contained within themselves the 
germ of the flower so long hoped for, to have dis- 
played flashes of insight into the essential nature of 
the problem so long unsolved. If, then, some student 



of comparative literary embryology shall chance to 
exhume from the mould of the year now just ended 
a novel called "The Honorable Peter Stirling," the 
work of Mr. Paul Leicester Ford, we fancy that he 
will recognize it as having been one of the precur- 
sors of the final triumph, as having had some dim 
glimpses, at least, of the aim that the Great Amer- 
ican Novelist is bound to have in view. For that 
aim must be, must it not ? to plunge into the heart 
of American life, to converge upon some focal sit- 
uation the various streams of social energy that per- 
form the functions of the organism. It will not be 
easy to determine exactly what elements should con- 
tribute to such a synthesis, but it may be confidently 
asserted, at least, that the political element cannot 
be spared. For good or for evil we possess as a 
nation the political instinct as few nations have ever 
possessed it. Now Mr. Ford has seized upon this 
truth, and has made politics the mainspring of his 
book. His hero, who is one of the strongest and 
most vital characters that have appeared in our fic- 
tion, is first and foremost a politician. Plunged in 
the thick of New York politics, coming into close 
contact with all sorts of political types, even the 
most degraded, not shrinking from any task, how- 
ever disagreeable, he shows us by his example how 
a man may keep clean in the worst surroundings, 
and emphasises the lesson that it is only by tempo- 
rarily accepting politics as they are that we can 
hope eventually to make them what they should be. 
The implied rebuke to those who merely scold, sit- 
ting aloof in the seat of the scornful, is all the more 
severe because it is conveyed only by implication. 
To discern the soul of good in so evil a thing as 
municipal politics calls for sympathies that are not 
often united with a sane ethical outlook ; but Peter 
Stirling is possessed of the one without losing his 
sense of the other, and it is this combination of 
qualities that makes of him so impressive and ad- 
mirable a figure. The book is not all politics. A 
very charming love-story relieves the harshness of 
the central theme. Numerous minor types flit in 
and out of the scene, and the scene itself shifts often 
enough to afford an agreeable variety. But the main 
interest attaches, after all, to the "practical ideal- 
ist " of the title, a figure far from prepossessing at 
the outset, but gaining steadily upon the affections 
and the esteem as the story pursues its course. " The 
Honorable Peter Stirling " is not the Great Amer- 
ican Novel for several reasons. Its style is very 
faulty, for one thing, and the writer's touch is 
heavy where it should be light, for another. But 
it is both a readable and an ethically helpful book, 
remarkable as coming from a writer without train- 
ing (as far as we know) in the art of fiction, and 
hence deserving of cordial commendation. 

Some time ago, Mr. Herbert Ward wrote a story 
in which the President of the United States, in- 
veigled on board of a swift cruiser, was kidnapped 
and held for ransom. More recently, Mr. " Anthony 
Hope" has told the story of a German monarch, 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



53 



also feloniously entrapped, whose place was taken 
by a man strikingly similar in appearance, the sub- 
jects of the prince remaining unconscious of the de- 
ception. We do not say that Mr. Clowes, the au- 
thor of " The Double Emperor," has actually taken 
his story from these sources, but it is a theory hardly 
to be avoided by anyone who has read the two tales 
in question. In this case, the Emperor of Lusatia 
(read Germany) is the victim of the kidnappers, 
who are enterprising Americans, and who carry out 
their nefarious scheme through the innocent offices 
of one Esek Hoodlum, of New York, who was once 
a fellow-student with the Emperor, who has his confi- 
dence, and who writes articles about him f or " Scrarp- 
ner's Magazine." It was really a little unkind to 
rechristen Mr. Poultney Bigelow with so very ob- 
jectionable a name, to say nothing of representing 
him as so extremely gullible as he here appears. But 
this is merely parenthetical. The Emperor's double 
is a young cavalry officer, who has been trained to 
personate his master, and thereby relieve the latter 
from attendance upon all sorts of Lusatian cere- 
monials. The abduction of the real Emperor, con- 
sequently, fails to produce the intended effect, for 
no one discovers that he has been abducted until 
after his escape, return, and proclamation of the 
fact. This outline of a wildly improbable but fairly 
interesting story gives the main facts, but no idea 
of how ingeniously the details are worked out. It 
is purely a story of incident and adventure, with 
nothing that bears the remotest resemblance to de- 
lineation of character. Indeed, so wooden a collec- 
tion of puppets are not often worked by a novelist. 
Of course, it all ends happily, and the villainous 
Colonel Snaggs, the arch-plotter, meets with a just 
retribution for his crimes. 

The irruption of the Scotsman into literature is 
one of the most noteworthy of present-day move- 
ments. We do not now refer to Stevenson and Mr. 
Lang, who long ago became cosmopolitans, but to 
such writers as Mr. Barrie, " Ian Maclaren," and 
Mr. S. R. Crockett, all of whom remain intensely 
local, at least in their most characteristic produc- 
tions. It is to the latter of the three, the chronicler 
of Galloway, that our attention is just now directed 
by "The Lilac Sunbonnet," a novel that seems to 
us distinctly superior to anything yet done by the 
annalist of Thrums. Mr. Crockett very frankly 
calls this book " a love-story," and a love-story it is, 
charming and unabashed. It has, moreover, the 
setting of Scotch landscape and the background of 
a narrow and disputatious theology that have been 
turned to effective account by many a love-story 
teller before, from the author of "The Heart of Mid- 
Lothian" to the author of "A Daughter of Heth." 
The account of that remnant of the faithful, the 
"true Kirk of God in Scotland; commonly called 
the Marrow Kirk," is as delightful a piece of the- 
ological characterization as we have often met with, 
although it verges upon the burlesque when the two 
men who constitute the entire ministry of the com- 



munion are made solemnly to depose one another 
from office, thus leaving " the Kirk o' the Marrow, 
precious and witnessing," without any head at all. 
But our main concern is, after all, with the two 
young people whose love-story goes on in spite of 
the dangers impending over the kirk, and who are, 
in fact, unwittingly the cause of so close an approach 
to so disastrous an extinction. It is a story told in 
prose by one who is a poet at heart ; who permits 
his pen to rhapsodize when ordinary prose would 
be inadequate, but who never goes too far in exu- 
berant expression, and rounds up every sentimental 
passage with some sly or shrewdly satirical observa- 
tion that leaves one in doubt whether to laugh or 
to weep. "It is a fallacy common among girls that 
young men desire them as sisters " Mr. Crockett's 
satire has no shafts more keenly-pointed than this. 
Even the dialect talk which he uses is so manifestly 
accurate, so brimming over with life and humor, 
that we cannot find a harsh name for it, albeit there 
is no slight difficulty in its comprehension, and it 
represents a prevalent literary tendency that ought 
to be frowned upon. 

After writing something like a score of novels, 
the most fertile of inventions is likely to flag ; and 
we are not surprised to find in " The People of the 
Mist " a rearrangement of the materials already 
exploited in " She," " King Solomon's Mines," and 
" Montezuma's Daughter." From the first two of 
these ingenious productions Mr. Haggard has bor- 
rowed the mysterious African people isolated from 
the rest of the world, the rock excavations, and the 
colossal statue carved from the mountain-side ; from 
the latter he has taken the whole framework of the 
new romance. In fact, so obvious a reproduction of 
one's former self passes the bounds of the permis- 
sible. And yet, such is the instinctive craving of 
the normally-constituted mind for adventure and 
romantic happenings generally, thousands of read- 
ers will become absorbed in the fortunes of Mr. 
Haggard's newest heroes, while recognizing almost 
every incident as hackneyed, and while realizing 
the slipshod style of the narrative, or rather its total 
lack of anything that is properly to be called style. 
Even the cheap device of astonishing an untutored 
people by the display of firearms is once more 
pressed into service, while the old trick of posing 
for gods with a barbarous tribe is the mainspring 
of the action. It is all very familiar, but it is also 
very thrilling, and boys of most ages will welcome 
the story in spite of its many imperfections. 

A story of even greater improbability than that 
just described is the work of Mr. Edward T. Bouve', 
and is entitled " Centuries Apart." Since, in the 
case of "The Double Emperor," we have ventured 
to construct a possible line of literary descent, a sim- 
ilar suggestion may by allowed in the present in- 
stance. The elements of " Centuries Apart " might 
have been derived from three books : Mr. Marriott- 
Watson's " Marahuna," Mr. Murray's " Gobi or 
Shamo," and Mr. Clemens's "A Yankee at the 



54 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16,. 



Court of King Arthur." The first of these novels 
supplies the idea of mysterious lands beyond the 
Antarctic ice-barrier, the second that of an old civ- 
ilization preserved by being cut off from the 1 rest of 
the world, and the third that of bringing an enter- 
prising American into contact with the life of me- 
diaeval England. To show how these incongruous 
ideas have been combined, a sketch of Mr. Bouv^'s 
plot is necessary. An American squadron, des- 
patched during our Civil War to a Pacific Coast 
station by way of Cape Horn, is driven southward 
by a fierce storm, and finds its way through a hith- 
erto unknown passage into an open Antarctic sea. 
Here a continent is discovered, and found to be peo- 
pled by fifteenth-century Englishmen, who, a few 
years after the Tudor victory of Bosworth Field, 
had sought a home in the new world just discovered 
by one Christopher Columbus, and who had, like 
their followers of the nineteenth century, been driven 
by storms to the land of Mr. Bouves extremely ro- 
mantic tale. By these ingenious inventions, two 
civilizations of four " centuries apart " are brought 
together by the author. We will leave the details 
of this meeting to be gathered from the book itself, 
adding only that the plot is developed with much 
skill, that it includes many thrilling happenings, and 
that it is set forth with no slight degree of literary 
art. Indeed, it is a tale distinctly out of the com- 
mon, and its materials, while not absolutely fresh 
in fiction, are at least not of the overworked sort 
that we recognize in ninety -nine novels out of every 
hundred. 

The writer who nowadays achieves a popular suc- 
cess is pretty sure to make hay while the sun shines, 
but such assiduity in the field as has recently been 
displayed by the author of " The Prisoner of Zenda " 
is to say the least uncommon, even in these days of 
swift and easy composition. Besides many contribu- 
tions to the magazines, this most industrious of hay- 
makers promptly put forth " A Change of Air," 
which we reviewed some weeks ago, and " The 
Dolly Dialogues," a clever production that must at 
least be mentioned. Besides these things, we note 
the simultaneous appearance of two new novels, 
" The God in the Car " and " The Indiscretion of 
the Duchess." The former of these books derives 
its odd title from the Car of Juggernaut, as that 
vehicle exists in popular fancy, moving resistlessly 
forward, and crushing all who come in its way. 
The " God " who presides over this destruction is 
an Englishman of the type exemplified by Mr. Cecil 
Rhodes, who is engaged in the promotion of a great 
African Company, and whose resolute will shrinks 
from nothing in the accomplishment of its purpose. 
The story is almost wholly one of conversation, is 
fairly rapid in its movement, and contrives to in- 
terest us in a dozen people without making us feel 
that any one of them is a real or even a possible 
character. 

" The Indiscretion of the Duchess" may be de- 
scribed in much the same terms as the above, al- 



though it has an added element of romantic adven- 
ture, and displays a piquant ingenuity of invention. 
It is all very impossible and very fascinating ; its 
secret seems to lie in the fact that the reader is kept 
constantly alert for new developments, which are 
never quite what is anticipated. Like all the rest 
of the author's books, it provides capital entertain- 
ment and is not in the least fatiguing. 

" Amygdala : A Tale of the Greek Revolution " 
is a pretty story by Mrs. Edmonds, a writer already 
well-known for other studies of the interesting pe- 
riod of modern history with which this tale is con- 
cerned. We read in these pages of an Englishman 
who, following Byron's noble example, devotes his 
fortune and his life to the Greek cause, and who, 
happier than the poet, lives to see Greece freed from 
the Turk. Bound up with the patriotic motive is 
the motive of love, for the Englishman becomes 
enamored of the daughter of a village pappas, and 
finds in her affection an additional reason for activ- 
ity in behalf of the Greek cause. The outcome of 
the story is tragic, although the tragedy is chastened 
and purified by the sacrifice of the heroine. 

The " Sibylla " of Sir H. S. Cunningham evinces 
some training in the art of fiction, and the capacity 
to produce a conventional, well-bred, and fairly 
readable novel of English society. The taste and 
style of the writer are good enough to bear the 
weight of material which is exceedingly hackneyed, 
consisting, for the most part, of the career of an 
English gentleman in politics, diversified by a secret 
stain upon the family honor, which casts a tempo- 
rary cloud over his domestic happiness. The lead- 
ing character is of a type far from sympathetic, but 
it doubtless exists, and its present portrayal is not 
devoid of interest. 

The pun so obviously suggested by the title of 
M. Zola's latest novel is amply justified by the mat- 
ters with which the document deals. The events of 
five days are told in as many hundreds of pages, 
and nothing is spared us of detail. We start from 
Paris to Lourdes in the first chapter, and with the 
closing pages we return. On the way to the famous 
resort, nearly every conceivable variety of loath- 
some disease is exhibited with brutal realism. When 
we reach Lourdes, the various types that throng the 
place are passed in review one by one, and we are 
invited to contemplate, in strange juxtaposition, the 
various aspects of scepticism and credulity, of sor- 
did commercialism and of mystical fervor. It must 
be admitted that to read the book is almost equiv- 
alent to making the journey. One can no more 
forget the one than the other. There are also de- 
tached scenes of great power and scattered passages 
of a beauty so marked that even the English trans- 
lation cannot miss it. M. Zola is particularly happy, 
here as in " Le Reve," as an interpreter of the mys- 
tical quality of religious faith. But there is little 
to be said for the novel as a work of constructive 
art. The two characters who are intended to supply 
the nucleus of the interest are conceived with force 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



and sympathy, but their lives are mixed up with, 
yet not logically related to, so bewildering a mass 
of episode that they do not emerge as they ought 
to. It is the old story ; M. Zola gives us most of 
the elements of art ; he fails to give us the synthetic 
structure. His pages teem with life actual, vis- 
ible, palpitating -but the one step beyond is not 
taken, and the one supreme effect not attained. 

The name of the foremost Hungarian novelist 
has become increasingly familiar to our public dur- 
ing the last two or three years, a fact more largely 
due to the recent celebration of the writer's jubilee 
than to any wide introduction of his works to our 
readers. It must be said, in fact, that Jdkai has not 
yet been translated sufficiently to enable us to judge 
of the value of his achievement. Of his hundred 
and fifty odd pieces of fiction, but a very few have 
been put into English garb, and it must be admitted 
that those few do not account for his great reputa- 
tion. That reputation, when duly sifted, will doubt- 
less be found to contain elements of many sorts, and 
to the patriotic rather than to the strictly literary 
elements we shall be forced to look to understand 
the main strength of his position among his coun- 
trymen. The mere bulk of his work is imposing, 
and Hungarians must take much pride in the pos- 
session of so prolific a writer ; and besides this, his 
activity as a citizen has been associated with those 
political movements of the past half-century which 
have appealed most forcibly to the Magyar heart. 
The latter proposition is illustrated by the novel pub- 
lished in 1890, crowned by the Hungarian Academy 
as the best novel of that year, and now translated into 
English by Mr. R. Nisbet Bain. In " Eyes Like 
the Sea " there is quite as much of autobiography 
as of fiction. The author refers to himself by name, 
tells of his patriotic activities during the great rev- 
olutionary year, of his wooing and his married life. 
But with this personal narrative there is twined an 
obviously fictitious thread, upon which hang the 
fortunes of an extraordinary young woman named 
Bessy the possessor of the eyes of sea-like hue and 
depth who takes to herself five successive hus- 
bands, and who dies in prison under a life sentence 
for the murder of the last. There is something fas- 
cinating about the story of this erratic young woman, 
in spite of the gross improbability of most of the 
things done by her, and the author's pictures of the 
struggle of 1848 are extremely vivid. These are 
the merits of what is otherwise a harum-scarum 
story, which is not, we must add, translated into 
even acceptable English. 

A new translation of Herr Bjornson's novels is 
a thing to be welcomed, but enthusiasm is at least 
tempered by the discovery that " SynnOve Solbak- 
ken," the first volume issued, is but an old transla- 
tion revamped, and by the further fact that the 
announcement makes no promise of Herr Bjiirn- 
son's two most important novels, " Det Flager i 
Byen og paa Havnen " and " Paa Gud's Veje." 
Mr. Edmund Gosse is to edit the series, and sup- 



plies this first volume with a rambling essay of some 
seventy-five pages, in which we find a sketch of 
Herr Bjornson's life and literary production, and 
some attempt to correlate his activities with those 
of his home and foreign contemporaries. We do 
not expect accuracy from Mr. Gosse, and hence are 
not surprised to read that " SynnOve Solbakken " 
was first turned into English in 1870. In point of 
fact, it was translated (or rather paraphrased) by 
Mary Howitt in 1858. " Norsk Folkebled " and 
" Tourganieff " are probably printer's errors, but 
we are not so sure of " Frakerk " for " Frakark," 
and " Sigurd the Bastard " is not admissible for 
" Sigurd Slembe." Moreover, we are told that this 
great work is a poem, although it is about nine- 
tenths prose. But we may even forgive these things 
in view of Mr. Gosse's recognition of the rank of 
" Sigurd Slembe " among the works of its author. 
He says : " In all the various repertory of Bjorn- 
son, there is perhaps no single work in which so 
high a level of technical excellence is aimed at, and 
at the same time so harmonious and dignified a 
result obtained. Looking over the twenty-five or 
thirty volumes which Bjornson has presented to the 
public, there is probably not one from which, in 
Landor's phrase, there is less for criticism 'to pare 
away ' than from ' Sigurd Slembe.' " This is strictly 
true. " Sigurd Slembe " is the greatest of Herr 
Bjornson's works, and, with the possible exception 
of " Brand," the greatest work in all Norwegian 
literature. Mr. Gosse makes a number of com- 
parisons between Herr Bjornson and Dr. Ibsen,, 
some of which are intelligible and some not. To 
this second category belongs the statement, made 
after some remarks about the cold and self-restrained 
manner of the latter poet, that "Bjornson would die 
in such an atmosphere, like an eagle in a Leyden 
jar" The italics are ours. One more perplexing 
statement deserves attention. Speaking of " Kon- 
gen," Mr. Gosse says : " Few even of Bjornson's 
admirers appreciated it at first." Then comes the 
following foot-note : " The present writer was among 
them, and published certain remarks for which (be- 
ing grown older and wiser) he would now do pen- 
ance, in a white sheet." This is all clear enough^ 
but we cannot reconcile it with Mr. Gosse's final 
estimate of the work in question, when he says that, 
" as one reads ' The King ' to-day, it is difficult to 
realize how so brilliant an intellectual extravaganza, 
so daring a political dream, should have failed to 
fascinate us from the first." If Mr. Gosse hopea 
ever to be taken seriously as a critic or as a scholar, 
he must reform his slipshod methods, in Hamlet's 

phrase, " altogether.'' , .. -. 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. 



Mr. F. YORK POWELL has been appointed to the Re- 
gius professorship of history at Oxford, the post occupied 
by Freeman and Froude. It was the general expecta- 
tion among scholars that Mr. Samuel Rawson Gardiner 
would succeed to the duties of this chair, but Mr. 
Powell is a good second. 



56 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



BRIEFS ox NEW BOOKS. 



some sound and B ? ks of sound and readable musical 
readable musical criticism are rare, and we commend 
criticism. Mr w F Apthorp's nine essays, 

collectively called " Musicians and Music-Lovers " 
(Scribner), as one of the best books of its class. 
The musicians to whom these essays give individual 
treatment are Bach, Handel, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, 
Franz, Dresel, and John Sullivan Dwight, a 
strangely-assorted gathering. The essays of a more 
general character are, besides that which gives the 
collection its title, " Some Thoughts on Musical 
Criticism " and " Music and Science." In one of 
his earliest pages, Mr. Apthorp remarks that " mu- 
sic is a subject on which all logic is wasted "; but 
we are inclined to think that he refutes his own dic- 
tum on more occasions than one, for if these essays 
illustrate anything besides their special subjects it 
is the fact that an appeal to the reason may be made 
on behalf of music quite as well as on behalf of any 
other art. The author appeals throughout to the 
intelligence, and eschews altogether the rhapsodizing 
that passes for criticism with many writers. Yet 
he by no means countenances the common notion 
that " the musician is capable only of a merely in- 
tellectual enjoyment of music." On this point he 
even uses strong language, and goes so far as to say 
that " of all the wrong notions that have ever be- 
muddled the human mind, this is the most utterly 
idiotic." But to feel the beauty of music is one 
thing, and to put the feeling into words is quite an- 
other. To attempt the latter is simply to attempt 
the impossible ; and Mr. Apthorp confines himself 
to the things that really can be said by one rational 
being to another. With the motive that sends the 
majority of listeners to concert-room or opera-hall 
the desire to hear someone sing or play, rather 
than the desire to hear the performance of some 
work the author has no great patience. " For 
what, think you, does the average music-lover look 
first, when he reads the advertisement of a concert 
in the newspapers ? In ninety-nine cases out of a 
hundred he looks first to see who is to be the solo 
performer ; what the programme is to be interests 
him only secondarily. Show me the man who looks 
first to see what is to be played or sang, and I will 
hold him in my very heart of heart as a music- 
lover who deserves to be a musician ! " These are 
golden words ; and let no one fancy himself a lover 
of music in the true sense unless he can put the ques- 
tion to himself, and honestly answer it in the right 
way. Sensible, well-put things abound in these es- 
says, and a touch of humor is not lacking. " I have 
heard many people complain that fugues are dry ; 
you might say, with equal reason, that demijohns 
are dry some are and some are not, it all de- 
pends upon what is in them." Fugues naturally 
remind us of Bach, and lead us to say that the es- 
say on that composer is one of the best apprecia- 
tions of his genius with which we are acquainted. 



" The English 
Novel " and the 



Delight in that colossal genius is another of the tests 
of true musical feeling, quite as good a test as the 
one already given. And, strange to say, the test is 
one that, more than most others, is likely to evoke 
an honest answer. Or, as Mr. Apthorp puts it : 
" Many people who have to keep up a reputation for 
musical taste will bear the infliction of a Schumann 
quartette or a Brahms symphony quite smilingly ; 
they will grin and bear it, and try to think they 
like it. But Bach marks the point where the worm 
will turn; he is the last straw that breaks the back 
of musical endurance, and people admit quite 
frankly that they find him intolerable." Most of us 
who have been curious to know whether our friends 
really cared for music have had that experience 
more than once. A longer review than the present 
would be needed to do justice to the acuteness, the 
insight, and the genuine musicianly feeling of Mr. 
Apthorp's volume. Our only regret is that he should 
not have polished his style a little more, avoiding, 
for example, such a solecism as " neither . . . were," 
and that he should countenance the common mis- 
spelling of Handel's name. 

How wide our forefathers would have 
opened their eyes if they could have 
"Study of Fiction." f oreseen tnat novel-reading would 

become a serious study in the closing years of the 
century, and be urged as an important element in 
general education ! Here and there an old-fashioned 
objector still raises a protesting voice ; but the Zeit- 
geist is against him, and it is now impossible for the 
student to ignore what has come to be ( with the pos- 
sible exception of poetry) the most typical and gen- 
erally cultivated of the literary arts. Even the pul- 
pit that last bulwark of conservative prejudice 
has taken kindly to the novel, and many a sermon 
is preached upon some popular fiction of the day. 
The University Extension people, in their effort to 
provide pabulum of sufficient tenuity to be easily 
assimilable by delicate digestions, have with pecu- 
liar avidity seized upon fiction as providing instruc- 
tion and entertainment in suitable proportions, and 
it is wholly natural that we should have at last a 
University Extension manual upon " The English 
Novel" (Scribner). This little book, which is a his- 
torical and critical sketch of the subject from the 
earliest times down to " Waverley," is the work of 
Professor Walter Raleigh, an experienced English 
teacher. It is rather dry in manner, but presents 
a well-arranged conspectus of fact. We are half 
through the book before we reach what most peo- 
ple suppose to have been the first English novelists ; 
but undoubtedly something must be said in such a 
history of the " Morte Darthur" and "Euphues," 
of "Arcadia" and the " Spectator," and even of less 
direct precursors of the modern novelist. Prof. 
W. E. Simonds, who at the same time has published 
" An Introduction to the Study of Fiction" (Heath), 
is even more inclusive, for he begins with u Beo- 
wulf " and " King Horn." His book consists of 
a few pleasant chapters on the more marked his- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



57 



torical phases of the subject, followed by a dozen 
rather lengthy extracts, ranging from the pagan 
epic of our Saxon forebears to Fielding and Sterne. 
" A bare introduction to the study," and no more, 
is what the author has sought to offer his readers. 
There are some useful chronological tables, and a 
list of a hundred novels, English and Continental, 
"which, for one reason or another, are quite worth 
reading." Our only quarrel with the list is that it 
strangely omits the name of Tourgue'nieff, although 
Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoieffski appear. This is 
much like leaving Scott out of a list of English nov- 
elists, or Shakespeare out of a selection of Eliza- 
bethan dramatists. 

" A History of English Literature for 
A text-book oj an Secondary Schools" (Harper), by 

old-fashioned sort. J . \ .' J 

Mr. J. Logic Robertson, is a text- 
book of the old-fashioned sort, admirable as a com- 
pact presentation of accurate fact, but calculated to 
encourage cramming, and to substitute memoriter 
work for that acquisition of power which should be 
the real aim of every student. The subject is 
neatly divided up into periods and groups, cut-and- 
dried critical opinions are provided, and a conspec- 
tus of the facts of political history served as an ac- 
companiment. Beyond the general misconception 
of the purpose of a text-book, the work is not open 
to much technical criticism. There is an occasional 
comment which strikes one as curiously platitudin- 
ous, such as the following : " The religious novel 
is a remarkable feature of current fiction, and prob- 
ably owes its origin to the skepticism of the age." 
No treatment of Shakespeare, even the briefest, 
should ignore, as Mr. Robertson's does, the periods 
in the poet's development. A serious lack of per- 
spective is often noticeable, particularly when Scotch 
writers are concerned. On these occasions only 
does the writer display a touch of enthusiasm ; and 
one cannot refrain from thinking that he considers 
the work of mere Englishmen poor stuff. The at- 
tempt is made to provide extracts as well as history, 
which cannot be done to any satisfaction at all in a 
book of this size. American writers are supposed 
to come within the author's plan, but the few par- 
agraphs they get are grudging and inadequate. We 
cannot, on the whole, accord the book any other 
than an extremely qualified commendation. 

The military The "Great Commanders Series" 

career of (Appleton) rightly includes the story 

General Hancock. of the m jli tar y career o f General 

Hancock, one of the most splendid soldiers that the 
Civil War produced, though he never held an inde- 
pendent command. It has been written by General 
Francis A. Walker, who was a member of Hancock's 
staff, out of the full knowledge gained through his 
personal knowledge of his hero, personal participa- 
tion in many of the stirring scenes with which the 
book abounds, and several years of labor spent upon 
his " History of the Second Army Corps." The 
book also shows the literary skill of a trained writer. 



This knowledge and skill, combined with the bril- 
liant career set forth in the book, make it one of 
absorbing interest, perhaps the best in the series. 
Unlike most military biographies, it is free from 
painful personal controversies. General Hancock 
was of generous and loyal spirit, obeying heartily 
even when acting under orders that he knew were 
bad. He had the power of infusing his own sol- 
dierly spirit and enthusiasm into his men, and so 
of bringing his brigade or division or corps into 
action to the best advantage, and of leading it 
through the most trying marches without loss of 
spirit. Not till the very end of the campaign of 
1864, after the awful experiences and losses of that 
terrible summer, were "his lines broken, his men 
driven from the ground, guns and colors taken un- 
der his eye. . . . Never before had he seen his men 
fail to respond to the utmost when he called upon 
them personally for a supreme effort." It was a 
blow from which he never recovered, though all 
acknowledged that he had done all that could be 
done under the circumstances. General Walker's 
book is more than a sketch of Hancock's career : 
it contains spirited descriptions of nearly all the 
battles in which the Army of the Potomac was en- 
gaged, from the Peninsular campaign through 1864. 
The best of these descriptions are those of Gettys- 
burg, where Hancock won his greatest glory, and 
the capture of the Salient at Spottsylvania. The 
successive commanders of the Army, especially 
Burnside, Hooker, and Grant, are freely criticised 
by General Walker ; yet the criticism is not bitter, 
but eminently fair. 

Another of the stories of the triumph 
Josiah Wedgwood Q f brains and will and character over 

and his work. 11-1 

poverty and physical weakness is 
given us by the veteran biographer Samuel Smiles 
in his " Life of Josiah Wedgwood " ( Harper ) . The 
world never tires of these splendid triumphs, and 
they supply a healthy stimulus to ambition. Of 
greater interest, however, because less familiar, is 
the history of the development of artistic pottery, 
and of a great industry out of the humble making 
of butter-pots and porringers that occupied the 
meagre population of Burslem till his time. Young 
Wedgwood began life with twenty pounds and a 
frail body, ever tormented with pain and often un- 
able to leave his bed. His inquisitive mind was not 
content with the poor processes that had contented 
his fathers and forefathers. His eagerness for ex- 
periments caused his brothers to set him adrift from 
the family business. But his keen business ability 
and insight soon brought him success. A new 
ware was discovered and put upon the market as 
soon as the preceding was no longer popular. The 
queen allowed her name to be attached to one of 
the standard wares, a vast foreign trade was built 
up, and fortune and national reputation came to 
him. To this day he ranks as one of the great men 
of the eighteenth century in England. This success 
was won by his ceaseless costly experiments with 



58 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



materials gathered from every part of the world, and 
by the application of true art to even the humbler 
products of his potteries. He developed the manu- 
facture of artistic vases, cameos, portraits, and other 
pieces of high excellence which nobility and royalty 
were eager to purchase. Among the interesting 
incidents of the book are the account of the making 
of the great table-service of nearly a thousand pieces 
for the Empress of Russia, the preparation of which 
occupied about eight years ; that of his relations 
with the sculptor Flaxman, who long furnished de- 
signs for his products ; and the copying of the Bar- 
berini, or Portland Vase, and other works of an- 
tiquity. The book is written in the well-known 
commonplace style of the author, with numerous 
repetitions, yet clearly, and with full knowledge of 
the subject and his work. 

Closing volume of The ninth and closin g V lume f 

Professor Huxley's Professor Huxley's collected essays 
collected essays. ig entitled " Evolution and Ethics 
and Other Essays" (Appleton). It includes the 
Romanes Lecture of the title (provided with some 
fifty pages of prolegomena for the confutation of 
captious critics) ; a paper, dated 1886, on " Science 
and Morals "; another, dated 1890, entitled " Cap- 
ital the Mother of Labour"; and the contents of 
the pamphlet of 1891 on "Social Diseases and 
Worse Remedies." Now that the man against whose 
pretensions and activities that pamphlet was directed 
has been received with open arms by so many of 
our fellow-countrymen, Professor Huxley's objec- 
tions to " corybantic Christianity " are given a re- 
newed timeliness. Professor Huxley, in his preface, 
remarks that, " Mr. Booth's standing army remains 
afoot, retaining all the capacities for mischief which 
are inherent in its constitution. I am desirous that 
this fact should be kept steadily in view; and that 
the moderation of the clamour of the drums and 
trumpets should not lead us to forget the existence 
of a force which, in bad hands, may, at any time, 
be used for bad purposes." It is extremely satis- 
factory to note the completion of this series of Pro- 
fessor Huxley's miscellaneous writings. However 
their timeliness may become impaired, their useful- 
ness for other purposes as examples of clear-cut 
cogent argument, and of a popularization which de- 
tracts nothing from the dignity of science will out- 
live more than the present generation. The author 
has, all his life long, fought sturdily against the ba- 
tallions of ignorance and prejudice, and his reward 
is assured in the thankfulness of the thousands whom 
he has helped to think clearly, and to whose lives 
he has supplied an effective ethical impulse. 



A satisfactory 
life of Cicero. 



Cicero's life was the very storm- 
centre of the decline and fall of the 
Roman Republic. To treat the one 
satisfactorily, it is necessary to treat the other fully. 
Mr. Strachan-Davidson does it charmingly in his 
volume on " Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Re- 
public" (Putnam). There is not a dry spot in the 



book, which is preeminently a candid and compre- 
hensive treatment of the greatest of orators, and a 
philosophic discussion of the turbulent times which 
made his life so tragic. It is refreshing to find this 
work unstained by hero-worship, the blot on the 
pages of Froude and many others, who have at- 
tempted sketches of Roman statesmen. Especially 
commendable is the scientific spirit of treatment 
which forms the background of the work. We might 
call it a laboratory study, in recognition of the fact 
that it is studiously compiled, for the most part, 
from original sources of information, chiefly from 
the incomparable letters of Cicero himself, letters 
still in their primeval purity, unimpaired by the red- 
pencil marks of the editor. Mr. Strachan-David- 
son appropriates these letters with a lavish hand, 
supplementing them with just enough of his own 
narrative to keep the chain of facts intact. Any 
other method of writing the biography of the an- 
cients must necessarily draw too freely on the im- 
agination of the author. Mr. Strachan-Davidson's 
translations are excellent for their solid expression 
and lack of all frothiness. We are struck by his 
clear statement of the positions of the Nobles and 
the Knights, and his unclouded treatment of the 
relations which existed at various stages between 
Cicero and his contemporaries, Caesar, Pompey, and 
Anthony. Never were they made plainer. We are 
impressed also by the occasional paragraphs on 
Roman politics, which, in point of "favoritism," 
"log-rolling," and corruption by wealth, seems not 
to have differed greatly from our own. This book, 
though written two thousand years after the birth 
of Cicero, is opportune. During this great lapse of 
time the lustre of Cicero's name has not been dimmed. 
Mr. Strachan-Davidson's excellent biography will 
be found to give in the best form what modern stu- 
dents demand. Abundant foot-notes testify to the 
faithful work which the production of the book has 
cost its author. 

Another of the pretty books that are 
A "Prelude printed in London by the Messrs. 

to Poetry." J . 

Dent, and sold in this country by 
the Messrs. Macmillan, is called "The Prelude to 
Poetry," and is edited by Mr. Ernest Rhys. It 
is designed as the first volume of a series called 
" The Lyrical Poets," and the volumes to follow 
will be made up of selections from the lyric treas- 
ures of our speech. This " prelude," however, con- 
tains, instead of poetry, the best things that have 
been said about poetry in the prose of our English 
poets, from Chaucer to Landor. Sidney's " Apol- 
ogie for Poetry" and Shelley's " Defence of Poesy," 
are the chief courses in this critical banquet ; but 
the releves, pastries, and other adjuncts of a well- 
appointed repast, are not missing. We have ex- 
tracts from Spenser, Campion, and Daniel, from 
Jonson's " Discoveries," from Milton, Dryden, and 
Pope, from Gray, Goldsmith, and Burns, from 
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats. And this choice 
collection of weighty matters is properly introduced 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



by the editor, whose pleasant opening essay pre- 
pares the mind for what is to follow. " What we 
find in these contributions," he says, " is a set of 
testimonies not at all scientific, but such as they are, 
-making a much more delightful and eloquent com- 
panion to the poetic anthology than any more for- 
mal body of criticism could do." And we are quite 
prepared to endorse the further statement of Mr. 
Rhys, that " to those who love these poets most, 
who care most for their ideals, this little book ought 
to be the one indispensable book of devotion, the 
credo of the poetic faith." 



BRIEFER MENTION. 

Professor H. Graetz's " History of the Jews " (Phil- 
adelphia: Jewish Publication Society) still pursues its 
voluminous course, but we are reminded by the appear- 
ance of the fourth volume, which covers the period 
from 1270 to 1618, that the end cannot be far distant. 
The former of the dates which stand as boundary-posts 
to the present volume is that assigned to the rise of the 
Kabbala and its cultivation in Spain and elsewhere. 
Among the subjects that follow are the successive ex- 
pulsions of the Jews from France, Spain, and Portugal, 
the persecutions caused by the Black Death, the progress 
of Jewish literature during the middle ages, Reuchlin's 
defense of the Jewish literature, the Jews in Sixteenth 
Century Turkey and Poland, and the permanent settle- 
ment of the Marranos in Holland. The date of this 
settlement was 1618, which marks the limit set for the 
present volume, but a closing chapter on " The Dutch 
Jerusalem and the Thirty Years' War " carries on the 
annals to the date of the Peace of Westphalia. 

Professor James M. Garnett's edition of " Hayne's 
Speech to which Webster Replied " (Maynard) takes 
the form of a pamphlet for school use, but it is not often 
that a text for this purpose is edited with so much pains. 
The editor's part of the work consists of a careful biog- 
raphy of Hayne, a special article on " The Great De- 
bate," and a few notes. The text has been collated with 
the copy presented by Hayne to Madison, and with the 
copy in a volume of speeches preserved by Mrs. Hayne. 
It is well to have the Southern side of the argument 
studied in our schools, which have too often been con- 
tent with an examination of the famous " Reply." 

It seems that we were a little premature when, in our 
last notice of the " Dictionary of National Biography " 
{Macmillan) we stated that the letter M was done with. 
But who could have foreseen a whole series of Mylnes, 
to say nothing of two Myrddins and a Myvyr ? These 
names, with a large share of the N's, are found in Vol- 
ume XL. of the great work just published. In this vol- 
ume the Napiers fill a large place, four of them, includ- 
ing Lord Napier of Magdala, getting several pages each. 
The longest biography is Mr. Glazebrook's Sir Isaac 
Newton; the next longest, Professor Laughton's Nelson. 
Thomas Nash, by the editor, and Cardinal Newman, by 
Mr. W. S. Lilly, are the articles of greatest literary 
interest. 

" Chambers's Concise Gazetter of the World " (Lip- 
pincott) is a volume of moderate dimensions, based 
chiefly upon the geographical articles of " Chambers's 
Encyclopaedia." The latest official figures have been 
used by the compiler, interesting etymologies are given, 



and brief justice is done to historical and literary asso- 
ciations. Pronunciation is also indicated as far as pos- 
sible. There are 768 double-columned pages, and the 
volume is substantially bound in half-leather with green 
cloth covers. 

" Pelldas and Mdlisande," which is probably the best 
of M. Maeterlinck's dramatic works, has been trans- 
lated into English by Mr. Erving Winslow, and makes 
a pretty book as now published by Messrs. T. Y. 
Crowell & Co. The author was terribly handicapped 
upon his last appearance in letters by the injudicious 
deliverances of the French critic who hailed him as a 
new Shakespeare. But we should not let ourselves be 
prejudiced against a man by what his friends say of 
him, and there can be no doubt that the Belgian dra- 
matist has become a sort of literary force. Mr. Wins- 
low contributes to his translation an interesting and 
temperate critical introduction. 



YORK TOPICS. 



New York, January 10, 1895. 

The first day of this month marked the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of the founding of " The Christian Union," 
now " The Outlook." Dr. Lyman Abbott and Mr. 
Hamilton W. Mabie, the editors, are well known in 
their respective fields of labor, but it is of Mr. Mabie 
that I wish especially to speak. He joined the staff 
of "The Outlook" in 1879, and became its associate 
editor five years later. There have been few profes- 
sional men of letters in this city who have accomplished 
more with less fuss than Mr. Mabie during the ensuing 
period. Besides his engrossing editorial duties, he has 
found time to deliver many lectures and addresses and 
to take an active interest in public affairs. But it is as 
the author of the five volumes of literary and social 
essays just issued in a uniform edition that Mr. Mabie 
chiefly demands our attention. In these books are to 
be found the crystallization of his life-work, so various 
and extensive. We should hardly call him a pupil of 
Mitchell and Curtis. Were he not so young, it would 
be more truthful to call him their contemporary. When 
"The Christian Union" was established, its editors de- 
clared, " We are glad to work with any one who is will- 
ing to work with us to make the word better. We do 
not ask what church or party he belongs to, nor what 
name he bears." And this quotation, with suitable 
changes, would apply to Mr. Mabie's writings. They 
seem to me, consciously or unconsciously, to embody a 
complete system of literary philosophy, hidden under a 
fascinating array of discussions of books and life. 

So many people now feel at liberty to speak for Mr. 
Howells, that he has been obliged to send letters to the 
newspapers denying various sentiments attributed to 
him. It is very amusing to find the Boston " Tran- 
script " posing as his defender against " chance shots " 
made at him in his absence by fellow men of letters at 
the Stevenson memorial meeting. I am informed that 
a number of the vice-presidents, including Mr. Howells, 
Mr. Kipling, and others, were not expected to be pres- 
ent at the meeting, a geographical impossibility in 
many cases, but were asked to lend the weight of their 
names as admirers of Stevenson, and that they were 
glad to do so. The idea that any of the speakers took 
advantage of Mr. Howells's absence to make unfavor- 
able references to him is absurd, and the suggestion to 
it reminds me of the days when the Boston " Tran- 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



script " was known as the Boston " Teapot." A tempest 
in a teapot, indeed. In the first place, the speakers 
could not have known whether Mr. Howells was pres- 
ent or not in an audience of two thousand people. 
Probably there is some feeling among the Boston illu- 
minati, because Mr. Howells has come to New York to 
live, yet nothing would surprise me less than to find 
him established next year in Tokio or Cairo, he not be- 
ing a citizen of any one city. 

Mr. James MacArthur, associate-editor with Prof. 
H. Thurston Peck of the American edition of "The 
Bookman," has just returned from London, where he 
has completed arrangements for the publication of that 
periodical. The first number will appear early in 
February; it will contain an article on Dr. Robertson 
Nicoli by Mr. S. R. Crockett, a new poem by Mr. Aus- 
tin Dobson, a rarity in these days, indeed, a London 
letter from Dr. Nicoli, with Robert Louis Stevenson 
for its subject, and a letter on Parisian topics from Mr. 
R. H. Sherard. Professor Boyesen, for the same num- 
ber, will give a survey of German and Scandinavian 
literature for 1894. 

Mr. Noah Brooks will sail for Italy and the Levant 
on the 29th of this month, returning in the early spring, 
Mr. Gilbert Parker is visiting the city, and will remain 
in this country for the rest of the winter. His new 
novel, just completed, will bear the title, "The Seats 
of the Mighty." The fund for a memorial to George 
William Curtis is increasing steadily. A special com- 
mittee of leading citizens of Boston has been formed to 
raise subscriptions in that city and vicinity. It has 
been suggested that a similar committee might be 
formed in Chicago to aid in perpetuating the memory 
of the late occupant of the " Easy Chair." 

ARTHUR STEDMAN. 



LITERARY NOTES. 



The text of Dr. Skeats's Chaucer, reprinted in a single 
volume, will appear at once from the press of Messrs. 
Macmillan & Co. 

Over a hundred letters written by Scott to Mr. Craig, 
the banker, have been found in the archives of the old 
Leith Bank, at Galashiels. 

The fourth volume of Craik's " English Prose Selec- 
tions " deals with the eighteenth century and will be 
ready for publication early in January. 

Mr. David Christie Murray is to be the guest of the 
Twentieth Century Club of Chicago on the eighteenth 
of this month. " A Poet's Note-Book " is announced as 
the subject of his address. 

We learn with regret that Mrs. Humphry Ward 
has decided not to accompany her husband upon his 
visit to this country. Mr. Ward is expected to arrive 
about the close of January. 

" Little Eyolf," Dr. Ibsen's new play, reviewed from 
the original in the last issue of THE DIAL, has since 
been published by Messrs. Stone & Kimball in Mr. 
William Archer's English translation. 

It is not easy to believe the statement made by " The 
Athenaeum " that Robert Louis Stevenson once offered 
to write a monograph on Hazlitt for the " English Men 
of Letters," and that the offer was declined by the ed- 
itor of the series. 

A " History of Higher Education in Rhode Island," 
by Dr. W. H. Tolman, has just been issued from the 



Government printing office at Washington, in the series 
of monographs upon the educational history of the 
several states. More than half of the contents are de- 
voted to Brown University. 

The limited edition of the little volume containing 
an account of the Bryant celebration at Knox College, 
in November, having been practically disposed of, a 
cheaper edition will be issued, from the same type, but 
bound in paper. Copies may be had by addressing Mr. 
Ernest Elmo Calkins. Galesburg, 111. 

"Le Modele" (H. Laurens, 6 Rue de Tournon, 
Paris) signalizes the completion of its first year by the 
publication of four studies in aquarelle, in place of the 
regular black - and - white plates. This closing num- 
ber of the year also contains a title-page and index, 
together with several pages of text descriptive of the 
ninety-six plates that constitute the first volume. Art- 
students should find this periodical helpful and sugges- 
tive. 

The ninth Quarterly Convocation of the University 
of Chicago was held at the Auditorium on the evening 
of January 2. President Low of Columbia was the 
orator of the occasion, and spoke sensibly and forcibly 
of the relation of universities toward political and social 
problems. President Harper reviewed the work of the 
last quarter, stated that exactly 1,000 students had 
been enrolled, and announced the organization of a new 
department that of pedagogy. He also announced 
several gifts to the University, the most important of 
which was one of $175,000, from Mr. John D. Rocke- 
feller, to be applied upon the current expenses for the 
year. 

A club of twelve book-lovers calling themselves " The 
Duodecimos " has just done an act of piety to the mem- 
ory of Benjamin Franklin by reproducing in facsimile 
"Poor Richard's Almanac for 1733," from the only 
known copy of the original, in the Pennsylvania His- 
torical Society's collection at Philadelphia. The fac- 
simile is printed on a hand-press made in Philadel- 
phia before 1800, ink-balls being used in the primitive 
way; the paper is genuine eighteenth-century handmade 
such as Franklin may have used, but with a little of 
that " wilful waste " of margin which the philosopher 
believed made " wof ul want." An introduction by the 
Hon. John Bigelow in which is reprinted for the first 
time the diverting correspondence between Franklin and 
his chief competitor in the almanac business, one Titan 
Leeds is printed in a modern type cast expressly for 
the purpose, on a handmade paper bearing the club's 
water-marked devices. The frontispiece is a portrait 
of Franklin etched by Thomas Johnson from the Du- 
plessis pastel in Mr. Bigelow's possession; and inter- 
spersed with the text are thirteen other portraits of 
Franklin, apocryphal and otherwise, with notes thereon, 
reproduced in artotype by the Bierstadt process. One 
hundred and forty-four copies only are printed, twelve 
on vellum for the members, and one hundred and thirty- 
two on paper, which have been sold to subscribers. To 
insure absolute fidelity, all quotations have been veri- 
fied by comparison with the original issues complete 
files of which, dating from 1733 to 1758 (Franklin's 
period), have been located, with the exception of the 
issue for 1735, which is nowhere to be found. No pains 
or expense has been spared by the club (which is not a 
money-making enterprise) to make their first venture a 
success, and the DeVinne Press has produced a book 
which for typographical excellence and good taste re- 
flects credit upon itself and upon "The Duodecimos." 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



" Prseco Latinus " is a Latin monthly paper of eight 
pages, published by Mr. Arcade Mogyorossy, of Phila- 
delphia. The contents include brief editorials, criti- 
cism of schoolbooks, educational notes, and other mat- 
ters. The editor is very scornful upon the subject of 
existing methods in the teaching of the classics and 
the popular text-books, and indulges in many " prave 
ords," indicative of the reforms he hopes to accom- 
plish. He occasionally lapses into English, to such 
effect as this : " The purifying waters of reform will 
gradually soak under the financial foundations of the 
Olympian citadels. . . . Before long you will hear the 
rumble of a land-slide, when inflated idols and methods 
will crumble and sink into the surging waves." We com- 
mend " Prseco Latiuus " as a very amusing little sheet, 
however unsound may be the theories of its editor. 

Professor Morse Stephens, Cornell's new professor of 
European history from Oxford, has made some inter- 
esting comparisons between English and American col- 
lege students. He concludes that the average Ameri- 
can undergraduate takes a more comprehensive view of 
history, has a better grasp of its essential facts, and 
surpasses his English cousin of corresponding grade in 
power of generalization; but the American student is 
lamentably deficient in his knowledge of details and 
also writes very poor English. Professor Stephens 
thought the essays written by his undergraduate stu- 
dents at Cornell were on the whole better than similar 
essays written by English students at Cambridge, al- 
though he sharply criticized the spelling, grammar, and 
generally careless style of the Americans. When, how- 
ever, he set his American students an examination of 
twenty questions concerning dates and places, he was 
overwhelmed by the lack of knowledge of facts dis- 
played in the answers. More than half the class failed 
to pass the examination, the average percentage being 
about 40, and as a rule the students who wrote the 
best essays handed in the poorest examination papers. 

The intelligent public has been not a little amused by 
the ignorant onslaught recently made by some of the 
Chicago newspapers upon the improved methods of 
teaching recently introduced into the public schools of 
the city, but it was left for a casual contributor to one 
of those newspapers to cap the climax of absurdity. The 
following is the essential part of his complaint: "In all 
the discussion abovit nature studies, of which I have been 
a careful reader, I do not believe attention has been 
called to the injudicious character of a song which 1 
found in a little book used by the primary teachers in 
the Chicago schools. Here is a verse of it: 

' How does the little crocodile 

Improve his shining tail, 
And pour the water of the Nile 
On every golden scale. 

' How cheerfully he seems to grin, 
How neatly spreads his claws, 
And welcomes little fishes in 
With gently smiling jaws.' 

"My recollection of the habits of the crocodile is that 
he doesn't live on fish at all, although he is said to catch 
birds in the way described. That a little child's atten- 
tion should be called to either fact, however, in a civil- 
ized school-room seems incredible. I was very indig- 
nant when I saw it, as I have two boys in the primary 
grade. I determined that I would not have a boy of 
mine taught such stuff; and to give it a humorous turn, 
as the author of these lines seems to have tried to do, is 
simply monstrous." This is almost too funny for belief. 



Imagine the poems of " Lewis Carroll " subjected, one 
after another, to the searching criticism of science ! 
Some one ought to unearth this indignant parent, and 
present him with a copy of the nursery classic which 
has strangely been left out of his education. 

The following are extracts from two letters written 
by Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, the one to a friend in San Fran- 
cisco, the other to Mr. Sidney Colvin: " Our dear Louis 
died the night of December 3d in the full tide of work 
and life. He passed away without pain or conscious- 
ness, finding the death he had always prayed for. The 
doctors said that nothing could have been done for him; 
he had simply come to the end of his power of living. 
The extraordinary love and kindness we have received 
from our Samoans has passed all knowledge. If any- 
thing could have comforted us, it was the unforgetta- 
ble devotion that they displayed. There was none of 
the professional horrors that make death so terrible. 
Not a strange hand touched him ; his own people dug 
his grave on the high mountain ridge, where it was al- 
ways his wish to lie." ..." My previous letter was in- 
terrupted by the arrival of several of our truest Sam- 
oan chiefs with their last presents for Louis, the fine 
mats that the body of a great man must be wrapped in. 
All night they sat around his body, in company with 
every one of our people, in stolid silence. It was in 
vain that I attempted to get them away. ' This is the 
Samoan way,' they said, and that ended the matter. 
They kissed his hand one by one as they came in. It 
was a most touching sight. You cannot realize what 
giving these mats means. They are the Samoans' for- 
tune. It takes a woman a year to make one, and these 
people of ours were of the poorest." 



TOPICS IN BEADING PERIODICALS. 

January, 1895 (Second List). 

Altruistic Impulse, The. T. Gavanescul. Journal of Ethics. 
Armor of Old Japan. M. S. Hunter. Century. 
Bamboo, The. J. Fortune 1 Nott. Cosmopolitan. 
Cathedrals of France, The. BarrFerree. Cosmopolitan. 
Charity, Old and New. H. C. Vrooman. Arena. 
China, Our Trade with. W. C. Ford. North American. 
Czar, The Young. Charles Emory Smith. North American. 
Death Duties in England, The New. North American. 
Dogma, The Necessity of. J. E. McTaggart. Jour, of Ethics. 
Energy, The Natural Storage of. L. F. Ward. Monist. 
Ethics, The Advancement of. F. E. Abbott. Monist. 
Festivals in American Colleges for Women. Century. 
Fiction, Recent. William Morton Payne. Dial (Jan. 16). 
Flying-Machine, The New. Hiram S. Maxim. Century. 
Gold, The Future of. North American. 
Humboldt's Aztec Paintings. Ph. J. J. Valentine. Cosmop'n. 
Japan. Helen H. Gardener. Arena. 
Japan, Occult. Ernest W. Clement. Dial (Jan. 16). 
Labor Troubles, The Recent. Carroll Wright. Jour, of Ethics. 
Linton, W. J., Recollections of. Dial (Jan. 16). 
Longevity and Death. George J. Romanes. Monist. 
Longfellow's Poetry, The Religion of. W. H. Savage. Arena. 
Nagging Women. Cyrus Edson. North American. 
Novels and Novel Readers. Richard Burton. Dial (Jan. 16). 
Paolo and Francesca. "Ouida." Cosmopolitan. 
Pasteur. Jean Martin Charcot. Cosmopolitan. 
Political Upheavals, Historic. T. B. Reed. North American. 
Politics as a Career. W. D. McCrackan. Arena. 
Ropes's Civil War. C. H. Cooper. Dial (Jan. 16). 
Rossetti, Christina Georgina. Dial (Jan. 16). 
Senate, Reformation of the. M. D. Conway. Monist. 
Theatres, Early London. G. M. Hyde. Dial (Jan. 16). 
Virtue, The Teleology of. Walter Smith. Journal of Ethics. 
Women, Means of Self-Support for. Harriet Allen. Century. 



62 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS. 

[The following list, containing 45 titles, includes books re- 
ceived by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

HISTORY. f _!> 

Britain's Naval Power : A Short History of the Growth of 
the British Navy from Earliest Times to Trafalgar. Illus. , 
12mo, uncut, pp. 265. Macmillan & Co. $1.50. 

A Student's Manual of English Constitutional History. 
By Dudley Julius Medley, M.A. 12mo, pp. 583. Mac- 
millan & Co. $3.25. 

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS. 

Alexander III. of Russia. By Charles Lowe, M.A., author 
of "Prince Bismarck." With portrait, 12mo, gilt top, 
pp. 370. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. 

Life and Letters of Dean Church. Edited by his daughter, 
Mary C. Church ; with preface by the Dean of Christ 
Church. 12mo, uncut, pp. 428. Macmillan & Co. 
$1.50. 

The Modern Temple and Templars : The Life and Work 
of Russell H. Conwell. By Robert J. Burdette. Illus., 
12mo, pp. 385. Silver, Burdett & Co. $1.25. 

Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Sidney 
Lee. Vol. XLI., Nichols O'Dugan ; 8vo, gilt top, pp. 
455. Macmillan & Co. $3.75. 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 

Imagination in Dreams and their Study. By Frederick 
Greenwood. 12mo, uncut, pp. 198. Macmillan & Co. 
$1.75. 

The Annals of a Quiet Valley. By a Country Parson; 
edited by John Watson, F.L.S., author of " Sylvan Folk." 
Illus., 12mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 217. Macmillan & 
Co. $2. 

Outlines of the History of Classical Philology. By Al- 
fred Gudeman. Second edition, revised, etc.; 12mo, pp. 
77. Ginn & Co. 85 cts. 

The Second Mrs. Tanqueray : A Play in Four Acts. By 
Arthur W. Pinero. 16mo, pp. 174. Boston : Walter H. 
Baker & Co. 50 cts. 

POETRY. 

The Cross of Sorrow : A Tragedy in Five Acts. By Will- 
iam Akerman. 8vo, uncut, pp. 102. Macmillan & Co. 
$1.50. 

The Poems of Henry Abbey. Third edition, enlarged ; 
12mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 290. Kingston, N. Y.: The 
Author. $1.25. 

Many Moods. By Warren Holden. 12mo, pp. 108. Press 
of J. B. Lippincott Co. 75 cts. 

Rhyme and Roundelay. By H. Cochrane. 12mo, pp. 17. 
Montreal : W. Drysdale & Co. 

The Fable of the Ass : A Satire. By Geo. A. Taylor. 12mo, 
pp. 13. San Francisco : C. A. Murdock & Co. 

FICTION. 

Little Eyolf. By Henrik Ibsen ; trans, by William Archer. 
16mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 164. Stone & Kiniball. $1.50. 

The Land of the Sun : Vistas Mexicanas. By Christian 
Reid, author of " A Comedy of Elopement." Illus., 12mo, 
pp. 355. D. Appleton & Co. $1.75. 

Dust and Laurels : A Study in Nineteenth Century Woman- 
hood. By Mary L. Pondered. 12mo, pp. 266. D. Ap- 
pleton & Co. $1. 

The Last Cruise of the Spitfire ; or, Luke Foster's Strange 
Voyage. By Edward Stratemeyer, author of " Richard 
Dare's Venture." Illus., 12mo, pp. 245. The Merriam 
Co. $1.25. 

The Panglima Muda: A Romance of Malaya. By Rounse- 
velle Wildman. Illus., 12mo, pp. 139. San Francisco : 
Overland Monthly Pub'g Co. 75 cts. 

NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES. 

Longmans' Paper Library : Sweetheart Gwen, by William 

Tirebuck ; 12mo, pp. 277, 50 cts. 
Banner's Choice Series : The Flower of Gala Water, by Mrs. 

Amelia E. Barr ; illus., 12mo, pp. 392. 50 cts. 



REFERENCE. 

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Ed- 
ited by Dr. James A. H. Murray. Vol. III., Deceit 
Deject ; 4to, uncut, pp. 63. Macmillan & Co. 60 cts. 

Appletons' Hand- Book of American Winter Resorts ; 
for Tourists and Invalids. Revised edition ; illus., 12mo, 
pp. 168. D. Appleton & Co. 50 cts. 

Parliamentary Usage for Women's Clubs and for De- 
liberative Bodies Other than Legislative. By Maria 
Frances Prichard. 24mo, pp. 60. The Robert Clarke 
Co. 30 cts. 

Guide to the Italian Pictures at Hampton Court. By Mary 
Logan. 12mo, pp. 48. London : A. D. limes & Co. 10 cts. 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES. 

Natural Rights : A Criticism of Some Political and Ethical 
Conceptions. By David G. Ritchie, M.A., author of 
" Darwin and Hegel." 8vo, uncut, pp. 304. Macmillan 
&Co. $2.75. 

American Charities: A Study in Philanthropy and Eco- 
nomics. By Amos G. Warner, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 430. 
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. $1.75. 

Social Growth and Stability : A Consideration of the Fac 
tors of Modern Society. By D. Ostrander. 12mo, pp. 191. 
S. C. Griggs & Co. $1. 

Sir William Petty : A Study in English Economic Litera- 
ature. By Wilson Lloyd Bevan, M.A. 8vo, uncut, pp. 
102. American Economic Association. 75 cts. 

THEOLOGY AND RELIGION. 

The Message of Man : A Book of Ethical Scriptures. Gath- 
ered from many sources and arranged by btanton Coit. 
12mo, uncut, pp. 323. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. 

The Permanent Value of the Book of Genesis as an In- 
tegral Part of the Christian Revelation. By C. W. E. 
Body, M.A. 12mo, pp. 230. Longmans, Green & Co. 
$1.50. 

The Books of Samuel : Critical Edition of the Hebrew Text, 
Printed in Colors. With notes by K. Budde, D.D. 8vo, 
uncut. Johns Hopkins Press. $2. 

The Book of Leviticus: Critical Edition of the Hebrew 
Text, Printed in Colors. With notes by S. R. Driver, 
D.D., and Rev. H. A. White, M.A. 8vo, uncut. Johns 
Hopkins Press. 75 cts. 

EDUCATION BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND 
COLLEGE. 

Waymarks for Teachers : Showing Aims, Principles, and 
Plans of Everyday Teaching, with Illustrative Lessons. 
By Sarah L. Arnold. 12mo, pp. 274. Silver, Burdett & 
Co. $1.25. 

History of Higher Education in Rhode Island. By Will- 
iam Howe Tolman, Ph.D. 8vo, pp. 210. Government 
Printing Office. 

Elements of Physics for Use in Secondary Schools. By S. 
P. Meads. 12mo, pp. 288. Silver, Burdett & Co. 72 cts. 

Endymion, the Man in the Moon. By John Lyly, M.A.; ed- 
ited, with notes, etc., by George P. Baker. 16mo, pp. 109. 
Henry Holt & Co. 85 cts. 

Ruy Bias. By Victor Hugo ; edited, with introduction, notes, 
etc., by Samuel Garner, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 230. Heath's 
" Modern Language Series." 75 cts. 

Hernani : A Drama. By Victor Hugo ; edited, with notes, 
etc., by George McLean Harper, Ph.D. With portrait, 
12mo, pp. 126. Henry Holt & Co. 70 cts. 

The Educational System of Penmanship. Prepared by 
Anna E. Hill. In 7 books ; 12mo. Leach, Shewell & San- 
born. 

SCIENCE. 

The Factors in Organic Evolution : A Syllabus of a Course 
of Elementary Lectures. By David Starr Jordon. 12mo, 
pp. 149. Ginn & Co. $1.50. 

Weismannism Once More. By Herbert Spencer. 12mo, pp. 
24. D. Appleton & Co. 10 cts. 

MISCELLANEO US. 
The Book of the Rose. By Rev. A. Foster-Melliar, M.A. 

Illus., 12mo, gilt top, pp. 336. Macmillan & Co. $2.75. 
The Harvard University Catalogue, 1894-95. 12mo, pp. 

623. Published by the University. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



63 



THE DIAL'S CONTRIBUTORS. W 

The following list of THE DIAL'S contributors is published for the purpose of showing how varied are the intel- 
lectual interests represented by the review, and how serious and authoritative its contents. It will be noticed that 
the institutions of higher learning have furnished THE DIAL with a large proportion of its contributors, and that our 
most important universities, with hardly an exception, are represented in the list. THE DIAL feels that it has 
reason to be proud of a list that includes the chief justice of the United States, presidents or professors of some 
thirty colleges and universities, and many of the most distinguished private scholars in the country. 



Pres. C. K. Adams, University of Wis. 

Prof. H. C. Adams, University of Mich. 

Prof. H. B. Adams, Johns Hopkins Univ. 

*Prof. W. F. Allen, University of Wis. 

Prof. E. P. Anderson, Miami University. 

Prof. M. B. Anderson, Stanford Univ. 

Prof. R. B. Anderson, Madison, Wis. 

Dr. Edmund Andrews, President Chicago 
Academy of Sciences. 

*Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, Chicago. 

Elwyn A. Barren, Chicago. 

Prof. John Bascom, Williams College. 

*Lieut. Fletcher S. Bassett, Chicago. 

Rev. George Batchelor, Lowell, Mass. 

Prof. Katharine Lee Bates, Wellesley Col 

Prof. Geo. Baur, University of Chicago. 

Prof. E. W. Bemis, Univ. of Chicago. 

Walter Besant. London, England. 

Pres. W. M. Blackburn, University of 
North Dakota. 

Louis J. Block, Chicago. 

Charles C. Bonney, Pres. World's Con- 
gress Auxiliary, Chicago. 

Lewis H. Boutell, Evanston, 111. 

Prof. H. H. Boyesen, Columbia College. 

Francis F. Browne, Editor The Dial. 

Dr. William M. Bryant, St. Louis, Mo. 

John Burroughs, West Park, N. Y. 

Mary E. Burt, Chicago. 

Richard Burton, Hartford, Conn. 

George W. Cable, Northhampton, Mass. 

F. I. Carpenter, Chicago. 

Prof. H. S. Carhart, University of Mich. 

Mrs. Mary H. Catherwood, Hoopston, 111. 

Prof. T. C. Chamberlin, Univ. of Chicago 

*Pres. A. L. Chapin, Beloit College. 

*James F. Claflin, Chicago High School. 

John Vance Cheney, Chicago. 

Ernest W. Clement, Yokohama, Japan. 

Dr. Titus Munson Coan, New York City. 

Rev. Robert Collyer, New York City. 

Dr. R. W. Conant, Chicago. 

Prof. Albert S. Cook, Yale University. 

Hon. Thomas M. Cooley, Univ. of Mich. 

Prof. C. H. Cooper, Carleton College. 

Prof. Hiram Corson, Cornell University. 

Dr. Elliott Coues, Smithsonian Institu'n. 

Rev. Joseph H. Crooker, Helena, Mont. 

Prof. E. L. Curtis, Yale University. 

Mrs. Anna Farwell DeKoven, N. Y. City. 

Prof. D. K. Dodge, University of Illinois. 

Col. Theo. A. Dodge, U.S.A., Boston. 

Prof. M. L. D'Ooge, University of Mich. 

Prof. J. G. Dow, Univ. of South Dakota. 

Prof. Louis Dyer, Oxford, England. 

Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Prof. 0. L. Elliott, Stanford University. 

Dr. S. R. Elliott, Staten Island, N. Y. 

Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wis. 

Prof. 0. F. Emerson, Cornell University. 

Edgar Fawcett, New York City. 

H. W. Fay, Westborough, Mass. 

Walter T. Field, Chicago. 

William Dudley Foulke, Richmond, Ind. 

Prof. D. B. Frankenburger, Univ. of Wis 

Prof. N. C. Fredericksen, late of the Uni- 
versity of Copenhagen. 

Miss Alice French (Octave Thanet), Da- 
venport, la. 

Chas. W. French, Chicago High School. 

W. M. R. French, Art Institute, Chicago 

Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice 
of the United States. 

Henry B. Fuller, Chicago. 

William Elliott Furness, Chicago. 
* Deceased. 



Prof. C. M. Gayley, Univ. of Cab'fornia. 
Prof. J. F. Geming, Amherst College. 
Frank Gilbert. Chicago. 
Rev. Simeon Gilbert, Chicago. 
Richard Watson Gilder, New York City. 
Rev. Washington Gladden, Columbus, 0. 
Frederick W_. Gookin, Chicago. 

* Mrs. Genevieve Grant, Chicago. 
Prof. Edward E. Hale, Jr., Univ. of Iowa 
Dr. Fitzedward Hall, Marlesford, Eng. 
Prof. J. J. Halsey, Lake Forest Univ. 
Dr. Caskie Harrison, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Prof. C. H. Haskins, University of Wis. 
Prof. J. T. Hatfield, Northwestern Univ. 
Prof. George Hempl, University of Mich. 
Prof. C. R. Henderson, Univ. of Chicago. 
Prof. J. B. Henneman, Univ. of Tenn. 
Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, Chicago. 
Rev. Brooke Herford, London, England. 
James L. High, Chicago. 

Prof. Emil G. flirsch, Univ. of Chicago. 
Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, Univ. of Mich. 
Prof. E. S. Holden, Lick Observatory. 
Charles S. Holt, Lake Forest, 111. 
Prof. Williston S. Hough, Univ. of Minn. 
Mrs. Sara A. Hubbard, Chicago. 
Prof .W. H. Hudson, Stanford University 
Capt. E. L. Huggins, U. S. A., N. Y City. 
Henry A. Huntington, Rome, Italy. 
Dr. James Nevins Hyde, Chicago. 
Edward S. Isham, Chicago. 
Prof. H. C. G. von Jagemann, Harvard 

University. 

*Hon. John A. Jameson, Chicago. 
Rev. Kristopher Janson, Minnesota. 
Prof. Joseph Jastrow, University of Wis. 
Prof. J. W. Jenks, Cornell University. 
W. L. B. Jenney, Chicago. 
Edward Gilpin Johnson, Milwaukee, Wis. 
Rossiter Johnson, New York City. 
Prof .W. H. Johnson, Denison University 
Pres. David S. Jordan, Stanford Univ. 
Prof. H. P. Judson, Univ. of Chicago. 
Prof. F. W. Kelsey, University of Mich. 
Prof. C. W. Kent, Charlottesville, Va. 
Capt. Charles King, U.S.A., Milwaukee. 

* Joseph Kirkland, Chicago. 
Walter C. Lamed, Chicago. 
Bryan Lathrop, Chicago. 

Rev. William M. Lawrence, Chicago. 

Prof. W. C. Lawton, Columbia College. 

Henry D. Lloyd, Chicago. 

Dr. H. M. Lyman, Chicago. 

James MacAlister, Pres. Drexel Inst. 

Franklin MacVeagh, Chicago. 

Alexander C. McClurg, Chicago. 

Prof. A. C. McLaughlin, Univ. of Mich. 

Mrs. Anna B. McMahan, Chicago. 

Prof. F. A. March, Lafayette College. 

E. G. Mason, Pres. Chicago Hist. Society. 

Miss Kate B. Martin, Chicago. 

Prof. Brander Matthews, Columbia Col. 

Miss Marian Mead, Chicago. 

Prof. A. C. Miller, Univ. of Chicago. 

Miss Harriet Monroe, Chicago. 

Miss Lucy Monroe, Chicago. 

Mrs. A. W. Moore, Madison, Wis. 

Prof. A. G. Newcomer, Stanford Univ. 

Rev. Arthur Howard Noll, New Orleans. 

James S. Norton, Chicago. 

* Mrs. Minerva B. Norton, Evanston, 111. 
Rev. Robert Nourse, La Crosse, Wis. 
*Rev. George C. Noyes, Evanston 111. 
Prof. J. E. Olson, University of Wis. 
James L. Onderdonk, Chicago. 



Prof. Henry L. Osborn, Hamline Univ. 

Eugene Parsons, Chicago. 

Prof. G. T. W. Patrick, University of la. 

William Morton Pavne, The Dial. 

Dr. S. H. Peabody, late Pres.Univ. of 111. 

Norman C. Perkins, Detroit, Mich. 

Prof. W. R. Perkins, University of la. 

Egbert Phelps, Joliet, 111. 

Hon. J. O. Pierce, Minneapolis, Minn. 

* Dr. W. F. Poole, Librarian Newberry 

Library, Chicago. 

* Rev. H. N. Powers, Piermont, N. Y. 

* William H. Ray, Hyde Park High 

School, Chicago. 

Rev. C. A. L. Richards, Providence, R.I. 
Prof. C. G. D. Roberts, King's College, 

Windsor, N. S. 

J. B. Roberts, Indianapolis, Ind. 
John C. Ropes, Boston, Mass. 
Prof. E. A. Ross, Stanford University. 
James B. Runnion, Kansas City, Mo. 
William M. Salter, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Prof. M. W. Sampson, University of Ind. 
Prof. Felix E. Schelling, Univ. of Penn. 

* Thorkild A. Schovelin, New York City. 
Clinton Scollard, Clinton, N. Y. 

Prof. F. W. Scott, University of Mich. 
M. L. Scudder, Jr., Chicago. 
Prof. F. C. Sharp, University of Wis. 
Albert Shaw, Ed. Review of Reviews. 
Prof. F.W. Shepardson, Univ. of Chicago 
Prof. L. A. Sherman, Univ. of Nebraska. 
D. L. Shorey, Chicago. 
Prof. Paul Shorey,University of Chicago. 
Prof. W. E. Simonds, Knox College. 
William Henry Smith, Lake Forest, 111. 
Prof. D. E. Spencer, University of Mich. 
Prof. H. M. Stanley, Lake Forest Univ. 
Prof. Frederick Starr, Univ. of Chicago. 
Merritt Starr, Chicago. 
Frank P. Stearns, Boston, Mass. 
Arthur Stedman, N. Y. City. 
Richard Henry Stoddard, N. Y. City. 
Mrs. Margaret F. Sullivan, Chicago. 

* Rev. David Swing, Chicago. 
Slason Thompson, Chicago. 

Edith M. Thomas, Staten Island, N. Y. 
H. W. Thurston, Chicago High School. 
Prof. E. B. Titchener, Cornell University 
Prof. A. H. Tolman, Univ. of Chicago. 
Henry L. Tolman, Chicago. 
William P. Trent, Sewanee, Tenn. 
Prof. F. J. Turner, University of Wis. 
*Prof. Herbert Tuttle, Cornell Univ. 
Edward Tyler, Ithaca, N. Y. 
George P. Upton, Chicago. 
Rev. David Utter, Salt Lake City, Utah. 
Prof. J.C.Van Dyke,NewBrunsw'k,N.J. 
Horatio L. Wait, Chicago. 
Elizabeth A. Wallace, Univ. of Chicago. 
Charles Dudley Warner, Hartford, Conn. 
Stanley Waterloo, Chicago. 
W. Irving Way, Chicago. 

* William H. Wells, Chicago. 

Prof. Barrett Wendell, Harvard Univ. 
Pres. D. H.Wheeler, Alleghany College. 

* Prof. N. M. Wheeler, Apple ton Univ. 
Dr. Samuel Willard, Chicago High Sch. 
R. O. Williams, New Haven, Conn. 
Gen. Robt. Williams,U.S.A.,Washington 
Prof. Woodrow Wilson, Princeton Univ. 

* Dr. Alex. Winchell, University of Mich. 
Prof. Arthur B. Woodford, N. Y. City. 
Mrs. Celia P. Wooley, Chicago. 

Prof. Geo. Frederick Wright, Oberlin, O. 



64 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 1895. 



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66 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 1895. 



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The Pygmies. 

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Towards Utopia. 

Being Speculations in Social Evolution. By A FREE LANCE, 
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Systematic Science Teaching. 

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The Education of the Greek People, 

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THE DIAL 

Journal of 3Literarg (Criticism, J9i0cu00ion, ant Information. 



No. 207. FEBRUARY 1, 1895. Vol. XVIIL 



CONTENTS. 



THE USE AND ABUSE OF DIALECT . 



PA6E 

. 67 



TRIBUTES TO MISS ROSSETTI 69 

THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN FICTION. 

Lavinia H. Egan 70 

COMMUNICATIONS 71 

Lafayette and Mirabeau. D. L. Shorey. 
A Murderous Translator. Herman S. Piatt. 
"Nonsense Verses" in the Schoolroom. Dinah 

Sturgis. 

THE GARDEN WHERE NO WINTER IS (Poem). 

Louis J. Block . ... 72 



FROUDE'S ERASMUS. C. A. L. Richards . 



73 



THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA. Alice Morse 

Earle 75 

THE TECHNIQUE OF THE DRAMA. John S. 

Nollen 78 

MODERN THEORIES OF ELECTRIC ACTION. 

Henry S. Carhart 79 

THE PHILOSOPHICAL RENASCENCE IN AMER- 
ICA. JohnDewey 80 

Deussen's The Elements of Metaphysics. Miiller's 
Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy. Hill's Genetic 
Philosophy. Hegel's Philosophy of Mind. Nichol's 
Our Notions of Number and Space. Ribot's The 
Diseases of the Will. Van Norden's The Psychic 
Factor. Ormond's Basal Concepts in Philosophy. 
Carus's A Primer of Philosophy. 

RECENT AMERICAN POETRY. William Morion 

Payne 82 

Aldrich's Unguarded Gates. Thayer's Poems New 
and Old. Miss Thomas's In Sunshine Land. Mrs. 
Hazard's Narragansett Ballads. Carman and 
Hovey's Songs from Vagabondia. Thompson's Lin- 
coln's Grave. Cawein's Intimations of the Beauti- 
ful. Rogers's The Wind in the Clearing. Morris's 
Madonna. Williams's The Flute Player. Cooke's 
A Patch of Pansies. Peterson's Penrhyn's Pil- 
grimage. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 86 

History of the U. S. Navy. Selections from two 
English poets. Old English ballads. The story of 
Venice. Critical studies of five authors. Nineteen 
American authors. A philanthropist's life and let- 
ters. The paragraph in English composition. A 
pungent collection of essays. Dante Society's an- 
nual report. Child-life in art. More memories from 
Dean Hole. 

BRIEFER MENTION 90 

NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 91 

LITERARY NOTES 92 

TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 93 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 93 



THE USE AND ABUSE OF DIALECT. 

There are indications not very marked as 
yet, but still indications that the day of the 
dialect versifier and story-teller is waning. The 
literary epidemic for which he is responsible 
has raged with unabated virulence in this coun- 
try for the past ten years or more. It has had 
almost complete possession of the bric-a-brac 
popular magazine. Its contagion has even ex- 
tended to those periodicals which we too fondly 
fancied to stand for the dignities, as opposed 
to the freaks, of literature. At the other ex- 
treme, it has been disseminated and vulgarized 
by the newspaper and the popular reciter. A 
few of the men and women whom we count as 
real forces in American letters have been num- 
bered among its victims. But all epidemics 
exhaust themselves in time, and we are encour- 
aged to believe that this one is nearly spent. 
A tabulation of the contents of our popular 
magazines would now, we think, show a smaller 
proportion of pages unreadable for their bad 
spelling than would have been disclosed by a 
similar investigation made two years ago. The 
journalist, having for a time done his best to 
spread the fashion of dialect, is now aiming at 
it the shafts of his dull yet not ineffective sat- 
ire. Many a literary worker is beginning to 
suspect that to misspell as many words as pos- 
sible is not exactly the noblest of ambitions. 
Best of all, the whole fabric of realism that 
is, of the crude photographic realism so noisily 
trumpeted by its defenders is crumbling away, 
to make room in due time, we trust, for the 
true realism of the masters ; and with this 
fabric there falls whatever theoretical defence 
of the dialect poem or novel may heretofore 
have seemed plausible. 

We by no means anticipate the complete dis- 
appearance of the dialect element from our im- 
aginative literature, nor would such a reaction 
be desirable. But we do expect the time to 
come when dialect shall occupy its proper place 
in composition, and be treated as a means rather 
than as an end. There is an important dis- 
tinction between the story written for the sake 
of dialect and the use of dialect for the sake 
of the story ; the latter practice is as excusable 
or even praiseworthy as the former is repre- 



68 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



hensible. The question is one between a writer 
and his own conscience. Let the story-teller 
ask himself this question : Is it my purpose to 
produce a faithful yet idealized transcript of 
life, with its joys and its sorrows, with its ten- 
der human relationships and its grim struggle 
for the mastery of adverse conditions, the use of 
dialect being one of the elements necessary to 
the representation of essential truth ; or am I 
merely taking advantage of a current fashion 
that tends to degrade the literary art, and, 
making of a grotesque orthography the raison 
d'etre of my work, adding just enough of de- 
scription and fancy and pathos to give my work 
the verisimilitude needed for it to pass muster 
at all ? Most writers have sufficient conscience 
to answer this question truthfully, if squarely 
put ; if they shirk the answer for themselves, 
they may be sure that the public, sooner or later, 
will find it for them. And the ultimate verdict 
of the only public worth writing for will never 
be favorable to the workman who fails to recog- 
nize the imperative obligation of this higher 
sort of conscientiousness. 

When used with discrimination and artistic 
restraint, dialect is, of course, an admissible 
element in both poetry and fiction. English 
literature would be far the poorer without the 
treasures of Scotch dialect preserved in the 
poems of Burns and the novels of the author 
of " Waverley." Likewise, we could ill spare 
the work of the Proven9al poets from the lit- 
erature of France, of Goldoni's Venetian com- 
edies from that of Italy, or of Renter's Platt- 
deutsch tales from that of Germany. In all 
these cases, the work simply could not have 
been done at all without the employment of 
dialect ; yet no one would venture to assert 
that the exploitation of a dialect was the prime 
motive that led to the composition of " Tarn 
O'Shanter " or " The Antiquary," of " Mireio " 
or " II Carnovale di Venezia " or " Ut Mine 
Stromtid." These are all instances of a richly 
endowed artistic nature finding expression in 
the medium most natural for his purpose. Even 
in our own country, a similar plea may be made 
for the language of Hosea Biglow, or of Mr. 
Cable's Creoles, or of Miss Murfree's Tennes- 
see mountaineers. But the swarm of common- 
place and uninspired scribblers of dialect that 
have descended upon our periodical press dur- 
ing the past decade need not hope to find a safe 
refuge in the shadow of such really significant 
names as have been cited ; their pretensions 
are too utterly without warrant and their pro- 
ductions too entirely without justification. Not 



Lowell, but " Josh Billings," is their model 
and Great Example. 

No discussion of the abuse of dialect that 
should omit the educational view would be ade- 
quate. The corrupting influence that may 
hardly be escaped by adult readers is tenfold 
more serious in its effect upon the growing 
mind. The prevalence of dialect in the papers 
and magazines that provide young people with 
most of their reading puts a new and formid- 
able difficulty in the way of teachers and par- 
ents. Even the books put into our schools as 
models for the guidance of the young the 
school " readers " themselves often contain 
examples of perverted diction that cannot fail 
to exert an evil influence upon the impression- 
able years of childhood. Upon this aspect of 
our subject, we cannot do better than quote 
some pointed observations from a paper by 
Professor Willis Boughton, of Ohio University. 
Mr. Boughton says : 

"For the past decade some of our most popular 
periodicals have been furnishing their readers with a 
weekly or monthly diet of dialect stories. A handful of 
editors have declared that the people want such litera- 
ture, and it is produced. Instead of romances in cul- 
tivated language, we are introduced to most ordinary 
characters who use most ordinary folk lore. The 
Christmas story, Mr. Howells asserts, is written in the 
'Yankee dialect and its Western modifications.' Even 
our verse is corrupted. Notice a stanza reproduced from 
a leading magazine : 

' I 'm been a visitin' 'bout a week 
To ray little cousin's at Nameless Creek, 
An' I 'm got the hives an' a new straw hat 
An' I 'm come back home where my beau lives at.' 
What literature! If the magazine, one of the greatest 
educational factors in our country, will tolerate such 
language ; if you and I read it, and smile at it, and 
quote it, the Cincinnati teacher may be pardoned for the 
use of language that shocked Dr. Rice. To preserve 
the speech of a vanishing people, dialect literature may 
be justified ; but to propagate such language is vicious. 
At school, the teacher may dwell at length upon the 
linguistic beauties of the 'Village Blacksmith'; but on 
Friday afternoon some urchin declaims : 
'The Gobble-uns' 'ill git you 
Ef you don't watch out,' 

and soon all the children in the district are repeating 
his words. Why the offspring of even polite society are 
prone to use bad English need be no longer a matter of 
wonder." 

" To propagate such language is vicious." The 
words are none too strong, and we thank Mr. 
Boughton for them, hoping that the protest he 
raises will be echoed by educators everywhere. 

These are some of the abuses of dialect ; 
what, then, are its uses ? To what fruitful end 
may we divert the effort now worse than wasted 
by the dialect-mongers of our periodical liter- 
ature? By substituting a scientific for an ar- 
tistic purpose, by making a serious study of 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



69 



dialect instead of playing' with it. The facts 
of dialect speech, as distinguished from the in- 
ventions of the newspaper humorist, are of 
great importance to the history of language. 
No more important linguistic work remains to 
be done in this country than that of recording 
the thousands of local variations of our speech 
from what may be called standard English. 
To fix these colloquialisms in time and place, 
to trace them to their origins, to construct 
speech-maps embodying the salient facts of 
popular usage wherever it has distinctive fea- 
tures these are scientific aims of the worthiest. 
Work of this sort is being energetically carried 
on by a constantly-increasing number of ob- 
servers in this country ; but the ranks still call 
for additions, and new-comers will be heartily 
welcomed. As a coordinating agency for such 
scattered contributions to knowledge, the Am- 
erican Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is, 
in a quiet way, establishing important scien- 
tific conclusions. The lay observer is hardly 
competent to make the finer distinctions in 
pronunciation that come within the scope of 
the trained phonetician, but he can be ex- 
tremely useful in the collection of vocabularies. 
The Society asks him to do two things for each 
peculiar word or idiom that comes to his no- 
tice "first, to fix the fact that it occurs in 
dialect usage in a sense differing from standard 
English, and, secondly, to fix the local limits 
of this usage." All such variations from the 
normal "represent just the class of facts on 
which the scientific study of language rests. 
Many of them are survivals from older periods 
of the language ; many new words are formed 
or adopted to meet a real need arising from 
new conditions, and so ultimately gain a place 
in standard English ; and many variations in 
pronunciation illustrate phonetic changes which 
are constantly going on in language develop- 
ment. The philologist needs to know, from 
a more reliable source than the ordinary novel- 
ist furnishes, the exact locality where each word 
or phrase is used (implying, also, a knowledge 
of where it is not used); just what it means to 
those who use it, and what local variations 
there are, if any, in its form and meaning ; just 
when each new word came in or old one went 
out of use." If, perchance, our little sermon 
on the use and abuse of dialect should turn 
even one misguided realist from a grinder-out 
of dialect " copy " for the newspapers into an 
exact observer of local usage for the scientific 
purposes of the Society, it will not have been 
preached in vain. 



TRIBUTES TO MISS ROSSETTL 



Christina Rossetti died on the 29th of December 
not, as the press despatches announced, on the 
31st. The funeral service was held at Christ 
Church on January 2, and the body was interred 
at the Highgate Cemetery. Among the mourners 
were Mr. W. M. Rossetti, his four children (Olivia, 
Mary, Helen, and Arthur), and Mr. Theodore 
Watts. The service included " The Porter watches 
at the gate " and " Lord, grant us grace to mount 
by steps of grace," two of the poet's most familiar 
hymns. 

The English literary press is strikingly unani- 
mous in appreciation of Christina Rossetti's great 
gifts, and in expression of its sense of the loss to 
English literature in her death. " The Literary 
World " writes as follows : 

" Looking to the quality of her poetry, Miss Rossetti 
attained to the level, at least, of Mrs. Browning, which 
means that she has been excelled by no English woman 
poet. The most exquisite sense of music in the choice 
and collocation of words, and an etherealised imagina- 
tion soaring from the sphere of the earthly to that of 
the spiritual, are the characteristics of her poems." 

This passage is from " The Academy " : 
" In perfection of form and melody of words, her 
lyrics are comparable to those of Shelley : they set them- 
selves to mental music as they are being read. No 
poet of the time, not Tennyson or Swinburne though 
their range may be far wider excels her in the mere 
matter of technique. None has such a pure note, such 
a bird-like sweetness." 

"The Athenaeum," after grouping Christina Ros- 
setti with Walter Pater as the two greatest English 
writers of those who have died during the year, says 
of her that she 

" Was not merely the greatest poet among English- 
women of our day, she was a writer who can be classed 
with all but the very greatest poets of the century. 
Her art was of that admirable kind which conceals the 
process of art ; never was verse so careful to seem care- 
less ; and she was not less remarkable for the passionate 
intensity of her emotion generally religious emotion 
than for the intense simplicity of its expression." 

And "The Saturday Review" begins its long and 
sympathetic editorial article with the following : 

" By the death of Christina Rossetti, literature, and 
not English literature alone, loses the one great modern 
poetess. There is another English poetess, indeed, who 
has gained a wider fame; but the fame of Mrs. Brown- 
ing, like that of her contemporary, and, one might al- 
most say, companion, George Sand, was of too immedi- 
ate and temporary a kind to last. The very feminine, 
very emotional, work of Mrs. Browning, which was 
really, in the last or first result, only literature of the 
L. E. L. order carried to its furthest limits, roused a 
sort of womanly enthusiasm, in precisely the same way 
as the equally feminine, equally emotional, work of 
George Sand. In the same way, only in a lesser de- 
gree, all the women who have written charming verse 
and how many there have been in quite recent times I 
have won, and deservedly, a certain reputation as 
poetesses among poetesses. In Miss Rossetti we have 



70 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



a poet among poets, and in Miss Rossetti alone. Con- 
tent to be merely a woman, wise in limiting herself 
within somewhat narrow bounds, she possessed, in union 
with a profoundly emotional nature, a power of ar- 
tistic self-restraint which no other woman who has writ- 
ten in verse has ever shown." 

Even more interesting than the above critical es- 
timates, is the personal sketch contributed by Mr. 
Theodore Watts to " The Athenaeum." Speaking 
of Miss Rossetti's physical sufferings and the forti- 
tude with which she met them, Mr. Watts says : 

" Throughout all her life she was the most notable 
example that our time has produced of the masterful 
power of man's spiritual nature when at its highest to 
conquer in its warfare with earthly conditions, as her 
brother Gabriel's life was the most notable example of 
the struggle of the spiritual nature with the bodily when 
the two are equally equipped. It is the conviction of 
one whose high privilege it was to know her in many a 
passage of sorrow and trial that of all the poets who 
have lived and died within our time, Christina Rossetti 
must have had the noblest soul." 

Of another aspect of her character, we read : 

" Her intimacy with Nature of a different kind alto- 
gether from that of Wordsworth and Tennyson was 
of the kind that I have described on a previous occa- 
sion as Sufeyistic : she loved the beauty of this world, 
but not entirely for itself; she loved it on account of its 
symbols of another world beyond. And yet she was no 
slave to the ascetic side of Christianity. No doubt 
there was mixed with her spiritualism, or perhaps un- 
derlying it, a rich sensuousness that under other circum- 
stances of life would have made itself manifest, and also 
a rare potentiality of deep passion. It is this, indeed, 
which makes the study of her great and noble nature so 
absorbing." 

Mr. Watts singles out " Amor Mundi " as being per- 
haps Miss Rossetti's masterpiece. 

" Here we get a lesson of human life expressed, not 
didactically, but in a concrete form of unsurpassable 
strength, harmony, and concision. Indeed, it may be 
said of her work generally that her strength as an art- 
ist is seen not so much in mastery over the rhythm, or 
even over the verbal texture of poetry, as in the skill 
with which she expresses an allegorical intent by subtle 
suggestion instead of direct preachment." 



THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO 
IN FICTION. 



For nearly fifty years the negro has occupied a 
place of more or less prominence in American song 
and story, and his future position therein cannot but 
be a matter of interesting conjecture. It was Stephen 
Foster's plantation melodies, more than anything 
else, perhaps, that first showed the negro in his true 
artistic character ; and that whole coterie of songs, 
" Uncle Ned," "O Susanna," Old Folks at Home," 
"Nelly Was a Lady," etc., forms still the most 
unique and vital addition this country has contrib- 
uted to the psalmody of the world. Though not 
the work of a Southern poet, they bore the stamp 
of genuineness upon their face, and carried the ne- 



gro's pathos and humor all over the land. This was 
before Mrs. Stowe furnished the spark that kindled 
into flame the smouldering fires of liberty ; but 
when " Uncle Tom's Cabin " helped to give the 
negro a country, it gave him at the same time a 
" local habitation and a name " in the literature of 
that country. But all was not yet done. It was 
not the suffering side of the slavery question that 
showed the negro in his richest artistic values, not 
tales of the wretchedness and misery of his condi- 
tion that pictured him in his greatest beauty. They 
held him fast-bound within the realm of philan- 
thropy, and the artist found there no high lights. 
It needed the softening touch of a calmer hand to 
show him in his true colors ; and this it remained 
for another generation to furnish. Mr. Thomas 
Nelson Page has collected the distilled sweetness of 
all that is loveliest in the negro character, and held 
it for all time in a chalice of pure gold. He has 
given to us and to the future the old-fashioned 
darkey pure and simple, with his humor, his pathos, 
his self-sacrificing humility, his cultured politeness, 
his noble loyalty ; and like unto him is Mr. Joel 
Chandler Harris's " Uncle Remus," whose name 
has become a household word throughout the length 
and breadth of the land. These two, more than 
any other writers, have struck the key-note of the 
negro's artistic value, and have given him as a vital 
element to literature. They know him and they 
love him, and their pictures are not overdrawn or 
idealized. Messrs. Page and Harris have had a host 
of coadjutors, each one lending a hand to give the 
negro a permanent place in the literature of our 
time, and all combining to perpetuate the memory 
of the sweetest and best of the race. 

But what of the future? The next decade at 
farthest must show us the last of the old-fashioned 
darkey of " bef o' de war," and it is he the pitiful 
remnant of him that we have grown to love and 
revere in fiction. We love him all the more because 
we know his end is fast approaching ; and when he 
is gone, who will take his place? The generation 
that is to come after him, and grow old in our midst 
as he grew old, is not worthy to unloose his shoe 
latchets, and surely can never fill the place in our 
hearts that he holds. 

Freedom brought the negro his God-given birth- 
right, but at the same time it robbed him of his 
greatest beauty, since it lost for him a background 
whereon to show the noblest elements of his char- 
acter. So long as he lives, the negro must possess, 
in a certain degree, artistic merit : his light-hearted 
Bohemian nature will keep this for him as surely 
as the sun shines, for it is the sun that brings it 
about ; but he has lost his finest motif. The black 
" dude " with cane and eyeglass furnishes richer 
material to the caricaturist and the evolutionist than 
to the artist, and the story-teller of the future will 
have no easy task to keep the negro up to his pres- 
ent valuation for readers of fiction. 

LAVINIA H. EGAN. 

bhreveport, Louisiana. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



71 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 

LAFAYETTE AND MIRABEAU. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

In reply to Professor von Hoist's communication in 
your last issue, taking exceptions to certain passages in 
my review of his " Lectures on the History of the French 
Revolution," I wish to say that my article was not in- 
tended to be a complete review of the Lowell Lectures. 
I preferred, as I prefer in this rejoinder, to consider 
mainly the characters of Lafayette and Mirabeau, which, 
in the Lectures, were contrasted, with what seemed un- 
due exaltation of the one and undue depreciation of the 
other ; of the one, who, says Professor von Sybel, " lost 
forever the dignity which good morals and honesty give " ; 
and of the other, " of proved disinterestedness, of con- 
stant care for the public good, respect for others, au- 
thority of conscience, loyalty, good faith, of motives 
beautiful and pure," whom Taine presents as a type of 
the cultivated and intelligent liberals of 1789 who did 
not submit to Napoleon. (" Regime Moderne," Vol. I., 
p. 74.) 

Professor von Hoist's charge relating to the conduct 
of Lafayette on the 5th and 6th of October, 1789, is 
supported on the authority of the light and frivolous 
Camille Desmoulins. The unsubstantiated opinion of 
Sainte-Beuve, fairest of critics, that this charge against 
Lafayette has been abandoned or disproved, the author 
thinks is not sufficient. I hope there will be nothing 
" surprising " to Professor von Hoist in the opinions of 
the eminent historians whom I now cite in support of 
Sainte-Beuve's opinion. Professor William Smyth says : 
" As Lafayette was one of the first movers of the Revo- 
lution, no proper justice is ever done to his character 
by those who were unfriendly to the Revolution; it must 
therefore be maintained that it is quite clear, from the 
concurring accounts of all writers, that he made every 
possible exertion to prevent this fatal measure, this 
march upon Versailles, and that with an afflicted and 
foreboding heart he accompanied the populace and the 
soldiers to take the chance of moderating and directing, 
as well as he could, a dreadful mass of men whom he 
could no longer control or bring to reason." Count Mont- 
losier, a distinguished conservative leader in the Assem- 
bly, says in his Memoirs : " In the midst of these dis- 
orders I was a witness of the grief of Lafayette," etc. 
(pp. 30-33). Taine (Revolution, Vol. I., pp. 133-136) ; 
Michelet (Vol. I., pp. 376-378); Mignet (Vol. I., pp. 
130-138) ; and Henri Martin (Vol. I., p. 94), give full 
narrations of the facts concerning the 5th and 6th of 
October, confirming the opinion of Sainte-Beuve. Fi- 
nally I quote on this subject the closing sentences of an 
exhaustive note of Thiers (Vol. I., pp. 375-378) : " No 
one, moreover, dared to deny, in the first moments, a 
devotion which was universally recognized. Later, 
party spirit, perceiving the danger of according virtues 
to a constitutionalist, denied the services of Lafayette; 
and then commenced that long calumny of which he has 
not ceased to be the object." Poor Camille ! 

I have not consciously misstated the conclusions of 
the author upon subjects referred to. When he declares, 
with italics, that Mirabeau was a party by himself, and 
knew beforehand that it would be so, and was determined 
that it should be so, he thinks, nevertheless, that he has 
somewhere stated overlooked facts which explain the 
meaning of what he had previously said, and that un- 
biased readers will see the palpable fallacies of my in- 



ference. Let the appeal, then, go to unbiased readers. 
The reminder that Mirabeau did not enter public life 
for the first time in 1789 is unimportant. In his youth 
he served a few months in the army. Just before the 
Revolution, Caloune gave him an obscure employment 
at Berlin, below any grade of rank in the diplomatic 
body. (Lome*nie, Vol. III., p. 648.) 

The author could not well avoid stating damaging 
facts in relation to the character of Mirabeau. The 
question at issue is, whether the vices and venalities of 
Mirabeau explain his failure to win that confidence of 
colleagues which is necessary to a public man. I did 
not, and cannot now, go fully into the matter. Readers 
will examine for themselves Professor von Hoist's ex- 
planation in which he attempts to reduce the charge of 
venality to what is warranted by the facts. Briefly 
stated, they are: That, for generations, public opinion 
considered it a matter of course that anybody who had 
a chance to get money from the king should improve it; 
that Mirabeau was paid for work done and services ren- 
dered (Vol. II., p. 170); that the "salary " he received 
was an incident, and not an end (p. 174); that if the 
accusers of Mirabeau cannot convict him in regard to 
" two questions " what were his promises, and how 
they were kept, it is evident that though his relations 
to the court were surely not altogether free from blame, 
his own opinion of them must in the main be correct 
(p. 179). And to help the reader to reach these start- 
ling conclusions the author states his own opinion, al- 
ready quoted from Vol. II., pp. 180-81. That opinion 
is further sustained by the supposition that it never en- 
tered into the heads of Count Mercy and Count La 
Marck that taking money front Louis XVI. could throw 
the slightest reflection upon Mirabeau (Vol. II., p. 170). 
In the correspondence between Mirabeau and La Marck 
often quoted by Professor von Hoist, confidential letters 
from La Marck to Mercy show the real opinion of La 
Marck in relation to Mirabeau (Vol. II., pp. 282, 283, 
354). On the 6th of December, 1790, Count La Marck 
writes to Count Mercy : " The queen will be more and 
more the object of my entire attention, and I shall seize 
with care all occasions to be useful to her. It is prin- 
cipally in that respect that I continue my relations with 
Mirabeau. What a man he is ! Always upon the point 
of flying into a passion, or losing heart; by turns impru- 
dent from excess of confidence, or cooled by mistrust, 
he is difficult to direct in things which require perse- 
verence and patience. I will fulfil my task to the end, 
Count, although I discover more and more all its diffi- 
culties." (Vol. II., p. 286.) His task was to watch 
Mirabeau and to hold him faithful to the court. Again 
he writes to Count Mercy: "Permit me to tell you 
briefly my present position. I cannot dissimilate that 
it becomes more and more difficult. On one side I have 
to watch every moment the impetuous character of Mir- 
abeau, and to bring him back when he escapes from me, 
or when he escapes from himself. Very passionate, very 
strong for a sudden attack or at a given moment, he is 
often incapable of remaining five days in the same meas- 
ure and direction." (Vol. II., p. 530). The real truth 
seems to be that nobody could fully trust Mirabeau, 
who had " lost forever the dignity which good morals 
and honesty give." 

Evidence of the venality of Mirabeau was found in 
the secret vault of Louis XVI., November 20, 1792. 
Then the judgment of France upon the conduct of Mira- 
beau in his relations to the court was first expressed. 
By unanimous vote of the Constitutional Convention, all 



72 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



honors previously bestowed in perpetuation of his mem- 
ory were withdrawn, on the ground that no man can be 
esteemed great without virtue. D. L. SHOREY. 

Chicago, January SO, 1895. 

A MURDEROUS TRANSLATOR. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

It was an honor which the culture of America duly 
appreciated, when, in 1893, one of the most famous of 
contemporary French writers came to our shores and 
visited us in our native haunts. It is a privilege to read 
a description of ourselves as seen by unprejudiced, but 
not unfriendly, eyes. M. Bourget is a decided advance 
over " Max O'Rell " as an accurate and penetrating ob- 
server or, at least, as a describer of what is observed. 
Eminently psychological and analytical, he does not, 
like the latter, deliberately sacrifice truth for effect, and 
whether we think his descriptions just or not, we are 
bound to admit that they are sincere. 

But whether we think M. Bourget just to us, or not, 
no one, I believe, wishes to see injustice done to him. 
And if ever a writer suffered at the hands of his trans- 
lator, it is M. Bourget at the hands of the newspaper 
syndicate that is giving his "Outre-Mer" to the Amer- 
ican public through the medium of the newspaper press. 
Traduttore, traditore, say the Italians. But the trans- 
lator of " Outre-Mer " is more than a traitor he is a 
murderer. No comparison with the original, nor even 
a knowledge of French, is necessary to discover the ex- 
ecrableness of his work. The style, as it comes to us 
in the newspaper, is awkward, dull, and tiresome, and 
these are faults of which M. Bourget is never guilty. 

A comparison with the Original, which is now running 
in " Le Figaro," discloses blunders which ought to put 
to shame any college freshman. Scarcely a dozen con- 
secutive lines can be selected in which mistranslations 
(some of them the most puerile), unwarranted liberties 
with the text, and monstrous atrocities committed upon 
the English language, do not occur. In its best parts it 
is scarcely more than a verbatim transliteration, in which 
the graceful and forceful French idiom, transferred 
bodily to the English, becomes utterly emasculated and 
meaningless. 

A few illustrations, selected at random, will abund- 
antly show what wrong is being done to a great French 
writer and critic. In speaking of the American young 
lady, he says: " Je crois plus sage de reconnaitre que la 
coquetterie n'est pas plus que le reste, chez 1' Ame'ricaine, 
une affaire d'entrainement." This is how the inspired 
translator got it: "I think it safer to recognize that in 
coquetry, no more than in the rest, the American girls 
allow themselves to be carried away." Every paragraph 
is teeming with such meaningless drivel as this, and 
the unthinking reader goes away with the impression 
that it is M. Bourget who writes it. An average fresh- 
man, with one semester's training in French, ought to 
know that faire une experience means " to make an ex- 
periment," not " to undertake an experience"; that a 
complet omnibus is not a "complete omnibus "; and that 
when Bourget says: "Ce que 1'Ame'rique me donnera 
je 1'ignore," he does not mean that he " ignores " what 
America has in store for him. 

The fact is that this translation as a whole is heavy, 
lumbering, and unreadable. And it is especially to be 
deplored, as this charming writer has only too rarely 
been brought within the reach of the non-French-read- 
ing American public. HERMAN S. PIATT. 

University of Illinois, Jan. 18, 1895. 



"NONSENSE VERSES" IN THE SCHOOLROOM. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

May I be permitted to place myself in the publicity 
of your columns on the side of the Chicago parent whose 
views in your issue of January 16 you class as the " cli- 
max of absurdity " ? 

It is of course greatly to be regretted that a Chica- 
goan or anybody else of man or woman's estate should 
remain in ignorance of the delicious nonsense that 
"Lewis Carroll" has written; but are not many of his 
whimsicalities for " grown up " folks rather than for 
children's powers of understanding and appreciation ? 
Their inimitable foolery is calculated, at least in some 
instances, to give sensitive children an erroneous im- 
pression of several facts in natural history, and a hurt- 
ful idea of the principles that make for ethics, long be- 
fore the little folks are old enough to sift out and enjoy 
the fun of the verses. This in itself should be a good 
argument for keeping the nonsense out of school-books, 
and permitting each parent for himself to judge what 
he shall set before and what keep from his little ones. 

The fact that many men and women of exquisite sym- 
pathies were " brought up " on " Mother Goose " does 
not prove anything in favor of the more bloodthirsty or 
more untruthful of those jingles. Loving and wise 
counter-influences made the crooked teachings straight, 
or supplanted them altogether. The people whose in- 
fant feelings were not cruelly lacerated by the " Babes 
in the Wood " tale, for instance, are to be congratulated, 
not held up as examples in favor of treating other little 
folks to the same harrowing yarn. It is a good deal like 
breaking a butterfly upon a wheel to argue against the 
dear old nursery twaddle, and the new nursery twaddle 
of the inimitable "Carroll " order; and nobody wishes 
to argue against it for anybody old enough to under- 
stand its fun and pay no attention to its distortions. 
But much of it is pernicious for babies in the kinder- 
garten and primary stages. Infant impressions, those 
of very young childhood, are among the most lasting we 
ever receive; is it not, then, not only the better part of 
discretion but the whole of valor, and, what is more to 
the point, the whole of tender-hearted parenthood, to 
see to it that, however attenuated the truth may be that is 
taught children, it shall still be truth, or ideality on truth 
lines? DINAH STURGIS. 

no East 34th St., New York, Jan. 22, 1895. 



THE GARDEN WHERE NO WINTER IS. 

" Se Dio ti lasci, letter, prender frutto 
Di tua lezione. "_ DANTB. 

Behold the portal; open wide it stands, 
And the long reaches shine and still allure 
To seek their nobler depths, serene, secure, 

And watch the waters kiss the yellow sands 

That gentle winds stir with their sweet commands; 
These stately growths from age to age endure, 
These splendid blooms glow in the sunlight pure, 

These wondrous works of human hearts and hands. 

Over the charmed space no storm may rest, 
The gloomy hours avoid the magic bound; 

Homer dwells here, Virgil, and all the blest 

Whose perfumed color lights Time's mighty round ; 

Pluck the fruit freely, reader, and partake, 

God wills it, for the enchanted Soul's fair sake ! 

Louis J. BLOCK. 



1895.] 



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73 



Efje 



Boofts. 



FROL'DE'S ERASMUS.* 

Whether a new life of Erasmus was espe- 
cially needed or not; whether Mr. Drummond's 
pleasant volumes of a few years since did not suf- 
ficiently cover the ground for the present gen- 
eration ; whether Mr. Froude has given us any 
fresh light on a somewhat difficult and evasive 
personality, these are questions which might 
be discussed at length without perhaps reach- 
ing a very definite conclusion. Severe critics 
might complain that when an Oxford Profes- 
sor, occupying the chair just vacated by a mi- 
nute and exact scholar like Freeman, chooses to 
turn over old and familiar materials and handle 
a well-known and interesting character, we 
may fairly expect some novelty of exposition, 
some side-lights from contemporary history, 
and the unearthing of a new fact or two. It 
looks rather as if Mr. Froude, recognizing that 
his strength lay in other directions, had frankly 
chosen to disappoint all such expectations, and 
content himself with an easier task, the exer- 
cise once more of his marvellous power of vivid 
presentation, and be satisfied, not with col- 
lecting new matter, but simply with setting be- 
fore us the old in a striking arrangement, and 
telling a familiar story as only such accom- 
plished tellers of stories can. It is not light 
from any new quarter that he offers us, it is 
only stronger and more effective light, with 
vivid dramatic contrasts and perhaps a little 
over-emphasis of shadows. This is Mr. Froude's 
weakness as a historian : over-emphasis of light 
and shade. His pictures are brilliant, not with 
diffused daylight, but with the whites and 
blacks of a sketch in charcoal touched with 
chalk, with the dazzle and gloom of electric 
light and shadow on the stage. His method, 
however, is vivid, and the immediate effect is 
striking. He compels attention. He makes 
Erasmus live again, as modern and intelligible 
as Principal Tulloch of St. Andrews or Profes- 
sor Jowett of Balliol. There may have been more 
penetrative and interpretative lives of Eras- 
mus written, but there will hardly be one more 
readable. This is Erasmus as the ordinary 
reader will know him for many a year to come. 
It is impossible not to notice, in this attract- 
ive volume, that tendency to bear on hard upon 
special defects of his hero which so vexed a 

*THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF ERASMUS. By J. A. Froude, 
Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford. New York : 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 



friendly public in Mr. Froude's treatment of 
Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle. A biographer may give 
nothing but the truth, yet present that truth 
distorted by disproportion. Mrs. Carlyle seems 
to be always fighting " bugs " and guarding her 
highly-strung husband against crowing cocks 
and cackling hens ; but probably these were 
smaller facts in her life than they appear in the 
biography. And Mr. Carlyle's later years were 
doubtless saddened by a recognition of how 
imperfectly he had valued the wife whom he 
had lost ; yet he had perhaps been less neg- 
lectful than he is pictured for us, and less re- 
morseful than his reiterated wail of penitence 
would lead us to suppose. Probably they lived 
like other married couples of genius, with fre- 
quent jars, yet substantial harmony ; and a wise 
biographer had been careful not to heighten 
the coloring of two such masters of vigorous 
expression as Thomas and Jane Carlyle. Dis- 
proportion becomes distortion. 

And so with Erasmus. It is not a pleasant 
trait in the great scholar that is revealed to us 
in his imperative demands and somewhat shame- 
less entreaties for money. You see the excuses 
for him. You see that scholars who give them- 
selves up to unremunerative labor must some- 
how live, and live at the expense of somebody ; 
that their choice is between the "patron and the 
jail," and that the ugly necessity sometimes is 
forced upon them of pushing their claims rather 
clamorously, of displaying too evidently the 
emptiness of their purses and the insistent crav- 
ings of their stomachs and backs. And it is 
all well enough to give us a letter or two to 
show this not altogether delightful side of the 
social conditions of the time in which Erasmus 
lived, and the readiness of Erasmus to submit 
to them. But a letter or two would suffice. Mr. 
Froude certainly errs in over-pressing the pain- 
ful fact of the beggary of mediaeval scholarship. 
He makes Erasmus so modern, by the vivid- 
ness of his presentation, that he appears as 
shanteless as if he were a sturdy tramp or beg- 
ging letter- writer of our very different day. The 
effect of such reiteration is as if you should 
paint a portrait deep red whose subject blushed 
easily and frequently ; or should describe a cli- 
mate by recording a succession of thunder- 
storms. They doubtless occurred, and were 
perhaps characteristic ; but there was a good 
deal of pleasant weather unmentioned besides. 

Certainly Mr. Froude is a delightful trans- 
lator. The letters of Erasmus in his version 
are like original letters of a master of pithy 
English. They are indeed cleverer in Mr. 



74 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



Froude's rendering than in the original, for the 
frank compression and condensation which he 
has given them. The epigrams are clearer-cut 
for the omission of redundancies, and they come 
closer together. 'Mr. Froude's treatment is 
something better than justice : it is enrichment 
and benefaction. 

Nothing could have more perfectly the air 
of well-bred ease and happy familiarity than 
Mr. Froude's lectures. He has gained by not 
taking his task too seriously. Where Free- 
man had worried you with conscientious, pains- 
taking, and scrupulous repetition, Mr. Froude 
touches lightly here and there, and glides on 
with a graceful rapidity. He is not a pro- 
fessor over a class of plodding students, 
rather he is an artist conducting a party of 
friends through a great gallery, and now by a 
word and now by a nod or a gesture calling 
their attention to a masterpiece or casually in- 
dicating a failure. We feel in good company 
all the while company not too much in earn- 
est, not taking life too seriously, but highly cul- 
tured and disposed to lavish its pleasantness 
generously. Was it with a foreboding that 
the walk through the historic gallery was for 
the last time ? 

So much for Mr. Froude's part in the vol- 
ume. What now of the greater part furnished 
by Erasmus ? Certainly there are few more 
brilliant letters in literature than those which 
supply the ample material for this life. Eras- 
mus had the eye of an eagle, and the talon of 
an eagle also. His pen was like an etching- 
needle ; his humor and wit the biting acid that 
made the swift sketch permanent upon the 
plate. He saw things as they were, and what 
he saw became alive upon the page. Those 
were not the days of hasty correspondence, of 
notes tossed off in a moment and mailed with 
the ink hardly dry, to escape the waste-basket 
but one day more. A letter then was as well 
worth elaboration as a sonnet or triolet now. 
But if you have sense, wit, humor, and knowl- 
edge of the world, you can elaborate verse or 
prose into a playful perfection that is delicate 
art, but seems careless nature and unconscious 
ease. It is good to have these picturesque and 
lively letters of Erasmus once more brought to 
the surface to illuminate the ever-interesting 
and not yet exhausted scene of the Renaissance 
and the Reformation. As a man of letters, 
Erasmus must ever hold a foremost place with 
Lucian and Clarendon and Voltaire and Lamb 
and Thackeray, for rare painting of character. 

But it is impossible to treat Erasmus as a 



mere man of letters. He was a power and au- 
thority at the time when the great overturn 
of Christendom took place. He was preem- 
inently the scholar and writer of his age, when 
scholarship and literature were just emerging 
from the pedantry of the schoolmen. He lived 
in the day of Leo and of Luther. He saw his 
time with most penetrative insight. He under- 
stood men as few of his contemporaries under- 
stood them, as scholars rarely understand them. 
He detected the flaws in Luther's method, and 
the shames in the old order into which he and 
Luther alike had been born. There was no 
corruption of the Church which he had not 
scourged with a whip of small cords. He was 
seventeen years older than Luther. Why did 
he not take the lead and do the work of Luther 
more wisely and not less thoroughly ? As we 
see the divisions and distractions which have 
followed upon the Reformation, we are disposed 
sometimes to ask angrily and impatiently, 
Might not Erasmus have made Luther unnec- 
essary ? Might he not have led a reform in the 
Church which should not have precipitated a 
schism ? Were it not good to-day if Christen- 
dom had never been rent as by an earthquake ; 
if a process of gradual enlightenment and piece- 
meal reform had been begun with Erasmus at 
its head ? 

Men have the defects of their qualities, our 
French friends say. The judicial temperament 
is not what you want in an advocate. The 
president of a peace association is not the 
precise stuff for a commander-in-chief. Ever 
since the days of the Reformation, men have 
complained of Erasmus for not being Luther. 
As well complain of an electric light, with its 
fine fibre all a-tingle and a-quiver within its film 
of glass, for not being a roaring fire on the 
hearth. Erasmus had his office ; Luther his. 
Erasmus was a search-light, flinging its pierc- 
ing ray into all the dark corners of Christen- 
dom and pitilessly revealing every sin and 
shame. Come down, O electrician, from your 
secret tower, and build us a blaze that shall 
consume these foulnesses which soar above us 
and make the air noisome for honest men to 
breathe. I cannot come down, is the answer. 
My business is to give light and direct its rays 
where they are needed. I am busy devising 
methods for shedding clearer and fuller light. 
And I have grown to feel that with light 
enough on the lives and the things they will 
shrivel of themselves. Anybody will fetch you 
a firebrand and set the foul heaps in a blaze. 
And I must see to it also that the hasty fires 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



75 



do not consume these endless precious things 
which my search-light reveals to me under and 
behind the rubbish heaps. 

After all, if Luther gave the world his doc- 
trine of justification, if he brought St. Paul 
once more to the front and gave us the free- 
dom of faith, the fearlessness of Christ, Eras- 
mus restored to the world the New Testament ; 
gave access not to Paul only, but to John and 
Jesus ; he gave us an example of the unbiassed 
spirit that sees the soul of good in things which 
are evil ; he gave us the suggestion of critical 
research ; he was that rare broad churchman 
who can tolerate high churchmen and value 
low churchmen, while impatient of the corrup- 
tion and superstitions of the one and the reck- 
lessness and cant of the other. Conservative 
in action, he was radical in thought. Because 
dreading revolution, he was earnest for reform. 
He loved the unity of Christendom too well to 
lightly cut himself loose from the ancient 
Church of his Fathers. The iconoclastic zeal 
of Luther was foreign to his taste, his temper, 
and his conscience. In many particulars I sus- 
pect what Luther called " dirt " Erasmus called 
" color." He was too clear-sighted to suppose 
that the Church could be tumbled about the 
ears of Christendom without doleful damage to 
truth and soberness, to love and purity. He 
would use a broom and scrubbing brush where 
Luther would use a torch or a battle-axe. Cut 
it down, why cumbereth it the ground ? said 
Luther. Let it alone this year also, said Eras- 
mus : those were the words of Jesus, it must 
be confessed. 

And yet the world is profoundly Luther's 
debtor, and beside his heroic form that of Eras- 
mus seems but pinched and small. The reformer 
of Rotterdam was clear light without heat, keen 
intelligence without moral intensity. Never 
man saw more clearly, but he lacked not man- 
hood, he was brave as a lion ; a more timid 
spirit had chosen his side and stepped behind 
the earthworks of one party or the other ; Eras- 
mus stayed out in the open and took blows on 
either hand, but he lacked wrath and fierce in- 
dignation. His humor qualified and tempered 
and half put out his fire. He discerned the 
evil and was not angry, but petulant and half- 
amused with the wicked every day. He was 
a good scorner, not a good hater. He was the 
scout not the warrior, the detective not the ex- 
ecutioner. To see the evil and expose the evil, 
and delight himself a little in the clearness of 
his vision and the keenness of his dissection, 
and then to feel that his work was done, and 



that it was for others to cart away the rubbish 
and clear up the room, that was Erasmus. 
Intelligence without character may at times be 
invaluable because unprejudiced and judicial, 
but it imperfectly serves its age. It stands back 
in the shadow, or lies out in the offing, when 
the struggle and the storm begin. It would 
like to hate and love more intensely, but these 
things are beyond its power. But it has been 
worth while also only to have seen and said the 

C. A. L. ElCHARDS. 



THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA.* 



A noble book on a noble subject is Mr. John 
Muir's " Mountains of California." A certain 
purity and nobility of expression is found 
therein ; a distinct fitness of style, as if the 
words were evoked and ranged in dignified 
order by the influence of the grandeur of the 
mountains and the beauty and wildness of the 
mountain denizens portrayed. No one in whose 
veins runs a drop of patriotic blood could read 
this story of the mountains without burning 
with pride at the pictures of the natural beau- 
ties of our native land. And the book has 
elements to attract the attention of the lovers 
of each and every form of natural beauty and 
interest. The subjects of the chapters partly 
display the varied aspects shown of mountain 
life : The Sierra Nevada ; The Glaciers ; The 
Snow ; A New View of the High Sierra; The 
Passes ; The Glacier Lakes ; The Glacier 
Meadows ; The Forests ; The Douglas Squir- 
rel ; A Wind Storm in the Forests ; The River 
Floods ; Sierra Thunderstorms ; The Water- 
Ouzel ; The Wild Sheep ; In the Sierra Foot 
Hills ; The Bee Pastures. But the titles alone 
give no hint of the varied wealth of informa- 
tion conveyed. Take the simplest chapter- 
heading " The Snow " of the shortest chap- 
ter. Many of us think we know much of snow ; 
some of us, that we know all about snow ; a few, 
that we know of mountain snow; but to all of 
us the chapter gives new knowledge. It opens 
with a description of the early mountain snows 
and the preparation of the wild mountaineers, 
deer, birds, bears, marmots, and wood rats, for 
the winter. Then we learn, in beautiful crisp 
words, of the wonderful action of snow in the 
forests. Then comes the surprising and strik- 
ing account of the winter burial of the rivers 

* THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA. By John Muir. Illus- 
trated. New York : The Century Co. 



76 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



and small lakes, of the snow bridges and the 
tunnels. Then is given a word-picture of the 
rare and beautiful Snow-banners, part of which 
I quote : 

" The most magnificent storm phenomenon I ever 
saw, surpassing in showy grandeur the most imposing 
effects of clouds, floods, or avalanches, was the peaks of 
the High Sierra, back of the Yosemite Valley, decorated 
with snow-banners. Many of the starry snow flowers, 
out of which these banners are made, fall before they 
are ripe, while most of those that do attain perfect de- 
velopment as six-rayed crystals glint and chafe against 
one another in their fall through the frosty air and are 
broken into fragments. This dry fragmentary snow is 
still further prepared for the formation of banners by 
the action of the wind. For, instead of finding rest at 
once, like the snow which falls into the tranquil depths 
of the forests, it is rolled over and over, beaten against 
rock ridges, and swirled in pits and hollows like boulders, 
pebbles, and sand in the potholes of a river, until finally 
the delicate angles are worn off and the whole mass 
reduced to dust. And whenever storm winds find this 
prepared snow dust on exposed slopes where there is a 
free upward sweep to leeward, it is tossed back into the 
sky and borne onward from peak to peak in the form 
of banners. . . . After being driven into the sky again 
and again it is at length locked fast in bossy drifts, or 
in the womb of glaciers, some of it to remain silent and 
rigid for centuries before it is finally melted and sent 
surging down the mountain sides to the sea. . . . 

" Yet the occurrence of well-formed banners is rare. 
I have seen but one display that seemed perfect. This 
was in 1873 when the summits were swept with a wild 
Norther. . . . When making my way from the valley 
to an overlooking ledge the peaks of the Merced group 
came in sight over the South Dome, each waving a re- 
splendent banner against the blue sky as regular in form 
and as firm in texture as if woven of fine silk. In four 
hours I gained the top of a ridge above the valley, 8000 
feet high, and there in bold relief like a clear painting 
appeared the imposing scene. Innumerable peaks, black 
and sharp, rose grandly into the dark blue sky, their 
bases set in solid white, their sides streaked and splashed 
with snow, like ocean rocks with foam ; and from every 
summit, all free and imconfused, was streaming a beau- 
tiful silky, silvery banner from half a mile to a mile in 
length ; slender at the point of attachment, then widen- 
ing gradually as it extended from the peak, till it was 
a thousand to fifteen hundred feet in breadth; each 
peak with its own refulgent banner, waving with a 
clearly visible motion in the sunglow, and not a single 
cloud in the sky to mar their simple grandeur. 

" In the foreground of your picture rises a majestic 
forest of Silver Fir blooming in eternal freshness, the 
foliage yellow-green, and the snow beneath the trees 
strewn with their beautiful plumes, plucked by the 
wind. . . . Mark how grandly the banners wave as the 
wind is deflected against their sides; how trimly each is 
attached to the very summit of its peak, like a streamer 
at a masthead ; how smooth and silky they are in texture, 
and how finely their fading fringes are penciled on the 
azure sky. See how dense and opaque they are at the 
point of attachment, and how filmy and translucent 
toward the end, so that the peaks back of them are seen 
dimly, as though looking through ground glass. Ob- 
serve how the banners belonging to the loftiest summits 
stream free across intervening notches and passes. 



And consider how every particle of this wondrous cloth 
of snow is flashing out jets of light." 

The main causes of the beauty of this dis- 
play of snow banners were, first, the favorable 
direction of the wind no south wind ever 
flaunts a perfect snow banner ; second, the 
great abundance at that time of unconfined 
snow dust ; third, the peculiar conformation of 
the slopes of the peaks. In general, the south 
sides are convex, while the north sides are con- 
cave, and the wind ascending those concave 
curves converges toward the summit, carrying 
the snow up with it, from whence it floats out 
in horizontal banners. The difference in form 
between the north and south slopes was pro- 
duced by the difference in glaciation to which 
they were subjected. The north sides were 
hollowed by residual shadow-glaciers that never 
existed on southern sun-beaten slopes. Thus 
do shadows determine the forms of these lofty 
mountains, and also of the snow banners which 
the wild winds hang on them. 

There is no doubt that the average reader 
for pleasure, or even for information, unless of 
scientific bent, looks somewhat askance at a 
chapter on glaciers ; but no one will skip Mr. 
Muir's fascinating chapters on glaciers, glacier 
lakes, and glacier meadows. Previous to 1871 
the California glaciers were unknown. That 
year Mr. Muir discovered the Black Mountain 
Glacier of the Sierra, and since then many 
others. The charming glacier lakes are many 
in number over fifteen hundred. There are 
traces of many more that now are vanished 
with the glaciers that gave them birth. The 
largest is Lake Tahoe, twenty-two miles long 
by ten miles wide. The story of their birth and 
growth reads like a prose poem. They contain 
110 fish, but plenty of frogs and larvae of in- 
sects and beetles. Humming wings glance 
over them, robins and grosbeaks feed on the 
berries of their borders, ouzels sing love-songs 
over them ; beautiful fringes of flowers nod 
over these little byworlds of lives for the na- 
turalist. A special beauty, which Mr. Muir 
notes, of the glacier meadows, is the smooth, 
silky lawn of their surface, enamelled with 
flowers, never ragged or unkempt, but per- 
fectly kept and adjusted. He says it produces 
in the beholder such a deep summer joy that 
the mind is fertilized and stimulated by the 
sight, just like a sun-fed plant. 

Mr. Muir gives one chapter to the Douglas 
squirrel. We are thus made acquainted with 
him : 

" He threads the tasseled branches of the pines, stir- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



77 



ring their needles like a rustling breeze; now shooting 
across openings in arrowy lines, now launching in curves, 
glinting deftly from side to side in siidden zigzags, and 
swirling in giddy loops and spirals round the knotty 
trunks; getting into what seems to be the most impos- 
sible situations without sense of danger ; now on his 
haunches, now on his head; yet' punctuating his most 
irrepressible outbursts of energy with little dots and 
dashes of perfect repose. He is, without exception, the 
wildest animal I ever saw a fiery, sputtering little bolt 
of life, luxuriating in quick oxygen and the woods' best 
juices. One can hardly think of such a creature being 
dependent, like the rest of us, on climate and food. 
But after all, it requires no long acquaintance to learn 
he is human, for he works for a living. His busiest 
time is in the Indian Summer. Then he gathers burs 
and hazel-nuts like a plodding farmer, working con- 
tinuously every day for hours ; saying not a word ; cut- 
ting off the ripe cones at the top of his speed, as if 
employed by the job, and examining every branch in 
regular order, as if careful that not one should escape 
him; then, descending, he stores them away beneath 
logs and stumps, in anticipation of the pinching hunger- 
days of winter. He seems himself a kind of coniferous 
fruit, both fruit and flower. The resin essences of 
the pine pervade every pore of his body, and eating his 
flesh is like chewing pine gum." 

The water-ouzel, most fascinating singer and 
interesting actor, also has a chapter full of 
interest and beautiful description. 

Perhaps the most marked characteristic of 
the book is the intense love shown by the au- 
thor for all forms and aspects of nature. The 
trees are his brothers ; he knows their forms, 
their voices, the different sounds of their rust- 
ling leaves, he reads their soul ; the birds and 
beasts are his friends, how he delineates their 
features ! the flowers are his sweethearts ; he 
can never cease telling their endearing traits. 
Of the mountains he speaks his love with no 
uncertain voice : 

" To the timid traveler fresh from the sedimentary 
levels of the lowlands, they seem terribly forbidding; 
but though hard to travel, none are safer. For they 
lead to regions that lie far above the ordinary haunts of 
the devil, of the pestilence that walks in the darkness. 
Accidents in the mountains are less common than in the 
lowlands, and these mountain mansions are decent, de- 
lightful, even divine places to die in, compared with the 
doleful chambers of civilization. Fear not to try the 
mountain passes. They will kill care, save you from 
deadly apathy, set you free, call forth every faculty into 
vigorous enthusiastic action." 

The book is wholly self-forgetful, in that 
respect a keen contrast to the self-conscious 
nature-studies of Thoreau. It is almost man- 
forgetful, though occasional bits of descrip- 
tion appear, like this humorous account of the 
furred Mono Indians : 

" Suddenly, as I was gazing eagerly about me, a drove 
of gray hairy beings came in sight, lumbering toward 
me with a kind of boneless, wallowing motion like bears. 
Suppressing my fears, I soon discovered that, although 



as hairy as bears, and as crooked as summit pines, the 
strange creatures were sufficiently erect to belong to our 
own species. They proved to be nothing more than 
Mono Indians dressed in the skin of sage rabbits. They 
were mostly ugly, and some of them altogether hideous. 
The dirt on their faces was fairly stratified, and seemed 
so ancient and so undisturbed it might almost possess a 
geological significance. The older faces were, more- 
over, strangely blurred and divided into sections by fur- 
rows that looked like the cleavage - joints of rocks, 
suggesting exposure on the mountains in a cast-away 
condition for ages." 

The picture of the old miners in their exag- 
gerated dotage, and the collections which they 
had gathered like wood-rats, shows deep human 
interest and pathos. 

I do not like to end the reviewing of this 
book, any more than I like to close its pages, 
over which I linger, longing to quote the fine 
thoughts, the fair and symmetrical sentences I 
ever find ; to give the noble expression of the 
sublimity and power of the winds, told in that 
fairly passionate chapter, " A Wind Storm in 
the Forest"; to tell the revealed meaning of the 
gestures of the trees ; to recount the wonder- 
ful, almost incredible, story of the beautiful, 
brave wild sheep, the analytical study and his- 
tory of the giant sequoias, the picture of the 
hanging gardens with larkspurs eight feet high, 
and that final revel in sweetness, the chapter on 
bee pastures, those flowery wildernesses whose 
gladsome praise in melodious phrase makes a 
picture sweeter than that of honied Hybla, 
rosier than that of heathery Hymettus. 

ALICE MORSE EARLE. 



THE TECHNIQUE OF THE DRAMA.* 

Gustav Freytag's " Technik des Dramas " 
has long been a standard work in Germany, 
and the announcement that an English transla- 
tion was about to appear was doubtless received 
with pleasure by all who are acquainted with 
the excellence of the original. The book is, in 
fact, one of the few works that are no sooner 
made accessible than they become indispensable. 

Freytag is eminently qualified to speak with 
authority on the subject here treated. With 
a thorough knowledge of the ancient drama, 
as well as of the dramatic literature of the 
principal modern languages, he combines the 
practical training of the successful playwright 
and a perfect acquaintance with the require- 
ments of the stage. As a result, the tone of 

* FREYTAG'S TECHNIQUE OF THE DRAMA. Translated by 
Elias J. MacEwan. Chicago : S. C. Griggs & Co. 



78 



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[Feb. 1, 



the book he has produced is admirably prac- 
tical and objective. The author has avoided 
all subjective theorizing. He offers no treatise 
on aesthetics, no original ideas on the philosophy 
of art. Feeling, as he says, that such treatises 
usually leave the young author in the lurch 
just where his real difficulties begin, he has 
here given, for the guidance of his successors, 
the results of his own experience, the lessons 
taught by long years of authorship, with the 
usual alternation of failure and success. 

The book is primarily addressed to young 
authors with dramatic aspirations, intended to 
point out to them the best path to the temple 
of fame, and to warn them against the many 
pitfalls along the way. But it appeals also to 
another and far wider circle of readers. The 
discussion of the rules of dramatic composition 
is so sane and judicious, the analyses of dra- 
matic masterpieces, both ancient and modern, 
are so skilful, the criticism is so straightfor- 
ward, that the book cannot fail to be interesting 
and valuable to any student of the drama. In a 
book written for a German public, it is natural 
that a large part of the illustrations should be 
chosen from the works of Lessing, Goethe, and 
Schiller. And yet Shakespeare, who has been 
so thoroughly naturalized in Germany that he 
is almost looked upon as a German classic, re- 
ceives perhaps more attention than any other 
author ; and a considerable place is given also 
to the Greek drama, especially to Sophokles. 

The body of the " Technique " is divided 
into four chapters, dealing respectively with 
Dramatic Action, the Structure of the Drama, 
the Structure of the Scenes, and the Characters. 
In the opening chapter the author discusses first 
the development of the " dramatic idea " from 
the raw material offered by history, litera- 
ture, or contemporary event. To the question, 
" What is dramatic ? " the answer is, " Neither 
an act per se, nor an emotion per se, but only 
passion that leads to action, and events as they 
influence the human soul." The discussion of 
the difference between a " dramatic person " 
and the flesh-and-blood reality is interesting, 
and may be recommended especially to the at- 
tention of the " Veritist." After an excellent 
exposition of the law of Unity, the author dis- 
cusses in turn the necessity of probability and 
importance in the action, dramatic movement 
and climax, and the nature of the tragic. 

In the second chapter the author considers, 
in its various aspects, the structure of the drama 
as a whole ; thus, he discusses " action " and 
" reaction," the rise, climax, and fall of the 



action, the division into five acts, with the in- 
fluences that produced this division, and its 
technical justification. The larger part of this 
chapter, however, is devoted to a thorough 
analysis of the origin and structure of the 
Greek drama, as exemplified in the works of 
Sophokles, followed by a similar study of the 
Germanic drama, with illustrations from Shake- 
speare. The third chapter continues the sub- 
ject of structure, with a discussion of the scene, 
as the practical unit of action, determined by 
the technical demands of the stage, and demand- 
ing of the author a skilful arrangement of mo- 
tifs within the limits of each such unit. 

In the exhaustive discussion of the charac- 
ters of the drama, Freytag points out their de- 
pendence on national characteristics and on the 
personality of the author, as well as on the ac- 
tion in which they are involved. The various 
sources of the action are fully treated, and the 
attitude of the dramatist toward his subject- 
matter is defined ; a number of practical rules 
follow, on the unity of the characters, their 
comparative importance and mutual relations, 
the perspicuity of the action, and miscellaneous 
topics of importance to the playwright. Two 
brief chapters follow, dealing with externals ; 
the fifth is devoted to a discussion of dramatic 
style and of the relative merits of prose and of 
various metrical forms as the vehicle of dra- 
matic expression ; the sixth, entitled " The Au- 
thor and his Work," contains a number of prac- 
tical hints of value to the dramatic writer in 
his workshop, and not without interest even to 
the general reader. 

In view of the excellence and importance 
of Freytag's work, it is unfortunate that the 
English translation should fall so far short, as 
it does, of offering a satisfactory reproduction. 
Translation is no easy task at best, and the 
translator is pretty sure to find himself beset by 
many difficulties, whether he adopt the literal 
or the idiomatic method. And yet it is possi- 
ble, by either method, to reproduce with toler- 
able accuracy at least the ideas of the original. 
The present translation, however, seems to com- 
bine all the disadvantages of both methods, 
without exhibiting any of their redeeming 
merits. The style of the translation, as En- 
glish, is execrable ; and at the same time hardly 
a page is free from more or less atrocious mis- 
translations, so that often the sense of the origi- 
nal is garbled beyond recognition. Let the 
reader judge for himself from a few typical ex- 
amples : 

"Alas, poetics has come down to us incomplete" (p. 5). 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



79 



" Next after the struggles of the leading characters, 
the judgment of contemporaries, as a rule, or at least 
that of the immediately following time, prizes the sig- 
nificance of a piece" (p. 27). 

" This internal consistency is produced by represent- 
ing an event which follows another, as an effect of which 
that other is the evident cause. Let that which occa- 
sions, be the logical cause of occurrences, and the new 
scenes and events will be conceived as probable, and 
generally understood results of previous actions. Or 
let that which is to produce an effect, be a generally 
comprehensible peculiarity of a character already made 
known "(p. 29). 

"For when young Protestantism had laid the se- 
verest struggles in men's consciences, and when the 
thoughts and the most passionate moods of the excited 
soul had been already more carefully and critically ob- 
served by individuals, the mode of conception natural 
to the middle ages, had not, for that reason, yet disap- 
peared " (p. 59). 

Such nonsense as this (and similar passages 
could be quoted ad infinitum) is hardly calcu- 
lated to inspire the reader with admiration for 
the author's mental or literary equipment. But 
in each of these cases, what Freytag really says 
is perfectly sane, and correctly expressed as 
well. 

Often the mistranslations of shorter passages 
are so grotesque that they become comical. 
Thus, we have the amusing statement that 
Shakespeare " created the drama of the earlier 
Teutons," where the original merely says that 
he was the first great dramatist of the Ger- 
manic race ; the reference to " laws of crea- 
tion," instead of laws of dramatic composition ; 
the reference to the " deepening of mind and 
spirit produced through the sixteenth century, 
not only among the Germans, but also among 
the Romans," where the original of course re- 
fers to the Germanic and Romance nations. 

Enough has been said to show that the trans- 
lation is inadequate and often misleading, and 
that the reader will need to be constantly on 
his guard in using it. Even in this form, the 
book will be useful, for it supplies a need for 
which there seems to be no other provision in 
the English language ; but it is deplorable in- 
deed that its usefulness should be seriously im- 
paired by the worse than indifferent quality of 
the translation. The publishers have done their 
part admirably ; they have produced a hand- 
some volume, with irreproachable typography, 
and few misprints. J OHN g> NOLLEN> 



THE Seventeenth Congress of the Association Lit- 
te*raire et Artistique Internationale will meet next Sep- 
tember at Dresden under the special patronage of the 
King of Saxony, who is said to have contributed a con- 
siderable sum to defray the expenses of the Congress. 



MODERN THEORIES OF ELECTRIC ACTIOX.* 

A full account of the experimental investi- 
gations which made the late Professor Hertz 
the best known among the younger German 
physicists is given in his interesting volume en- 
titled, " Electric Waves," which well merits the 
English translation recently published. When 
the papers of Hertz first appeared they created 
a profound sensation among the most advanced 
physicists. No work in physics in many years 
has attracted the attention of scientific men to 
such a degree. His apparatus was so simple, 
his methods so easily followed, and the results 
so striking, that all recognized the appearance 
of a star of the first magnitude. 

Though the modern theory of electricity, as 
originated by Faraday, had been expanded and 
reduced to a mathematical system by the la- 
mented Maxwell, yet twenty-five years had 
elapsed before Hertz, by his famous experi- 
ments " On the Propagation of Electric Action 
with Finite Velocity Through Space," con- 
vinced the scientific world of the superiority of 
Maxwell's theory over the older views. All of 
his researches are of recent date ; the first was 
made in 1886, and the others followed in quick 
succession. The interest excited caused a great 
number of applications to be made for the 
papers in which the researches were published. 
Since it was impossible to comply with all these 
requests, Hertz decided to have them reprinted 
without change, but to add as an introduction 
a summary of his work, giving the history of 
his experiments, and stating his final theoreti- 
cal views on the subject. He moreover added 
supplementary notes, because some of the opin- 
ions expressed in the account of his earlier in- 
vestigations had changed. These notes contain, 
in addition, an account of results arrived at by 
other investigators who undertook similar ex- 
periments later. 

The series of papers in the present volume 
consists of fourteen numbers, of which the third 
is an extract from a paper by von Bezold, who 
as early as 1870 observed electric waves and 
their interference. His results are practically 
the same as those arrived at by Hertz in his 
earlier investigations. The first part of the 
book contains a description of Hertz's exciter, 
by which very rapid electric oscillations or 
waves are produced ; and of his receiver, or 



* ELECTRIC WAVES. Being Researches on the Propagation 
of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space. By 
Dr. Heinrich Hertz. Authorized English translation by D. 
E. Jones, B.Sc., with a preface by Lord Kelvin. New York : 
Macmillan & Co. 



80 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



secondary coil, by means of which he investi- 
gated their action. He follows these waves 
along conductors, studies the interference of 
direct and reflected waves, determines their ve- 
locity of propagation, etc. 

Perhaps the most interesting number of the 
series is the eleventh, originally published in 
1888, " On Electric Radiation." Hertz pro- 
duces rays of electricity, and proves that they 
are propagated in straight lines ; he polarizes 
these rays, reflects them by appropriate mir- 
rors, shows that they can be refracted, deter- 
mines the index of refraction for the refracting 
medium, in short, performs all the experi- 
ments with which we are familiar in the study 
of light. Hence electric waves belong to the 
same category of ether vibrations as light and 
heat waves ; or, as he himself says, " we might 
designate the rays of electric force as rays of 
light of very great wave length." The volume 
closes with two papers containing a mathemati- 
cal treatment of the phenomena. The English 
title of " Electric Waves " was suggested by 
Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson). He also 
wrote the preface to the English edition, giving 
a short outline of the development of modern 
theories of electric action. 

It is interesting at this time to note that 
Hertz began his studies, which led to such re- 
markable results, on account of a problem pro- 
posed to him some fourteen years since by Pro- 
fessor von Helmholtz, who has so recently died. 
The writer well remembers Hertz about that 
time as the second assistant in von Helmholtz's 
laboratory. Hertz's work has recalled atten- 
tion to the remarkable researches of our own 
Joseph Henry, which, as Lord Kelvin has truly 
said, " came more nearly to an experimental 
demonstration of electro-magnetic waves than 
anything that had been done previously." 

We now have, as a result of Hertz's work, 
one ether for heat, light, electricity, and mag- 
netism ; and this volume, containing Hertz's 
electrical papers, will be a permanent record 
of the splendid consummation now realized. 
HENRY S. CARHART. 



THAT " The Saturday Review," while changing its 
editor, has not changed its soul, is borne upon us by such 
things as this late bit of criticism : " Let us by all means, 
if we can do it sensibly, discuss the relative merits of 
Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell, both 
excellent writers of humorous verse, who deserve a 
place somewhere between Calverley and Mr. Austin 
Dobson; but, in the name of common-sense, let us not 
do it as if we were discussing the relative merits of 
Keats and of Coleridge." 



THE PHILOSOPHIC RENASCENCE IN 
AMERICA.* 



The nine books lying before me are an interest- 
ing sign of the times. Drifting together from va- 
rious quarters, and finally tied up in one packet and 
calling for notice in one review, they present at 
once an extraordinary diversity and an extraordin- 
ary unity. The diversity is in the various methods 
of approach to philosophy which they represent in 
contemporary thought ; the unity is in a certain un- 
derlying trend and aim which, disguised by differ- 
ences in terminology and of school attachment, is 
none the less real and assured even though some 
of the authors represented might horroresce at the 
thought of kinship with some of the others. It ac- 
cordingly seems better worth while for the nonce to 
take this casual collection of books as an index of 
the present direction of thought, than to subject 
each severally to an exhaustive analysis. 

At the outset the collection is characteristic in 
this : it has within it five books by American writers, 
including one by a thinker of German birth, but 
now at home in America and conducting two of its 
most thoughtful periodicals ; it has within it two 
translations from the German, and one from the 
French, and one book by a German acclimated in 
England rather than in the United States. It does 
not take a very long look backward to realize the 
significance of the possibility of any such collection. 
It marks at once the extent to which English and 
American thought is breaking loose from its long- 
time local prepossessions and insulation, and is en- 
deavoring to assimilate the thought of continental 
Europe ; and it marks also the vigor of the philo- 
sophic renascence for such we may fairly term it 
in the United States. Add to this that one of the 
books ( Professor Miiller's ) deals expressly with an 
old philosophy of India, while another (Dr. Deus- 
sen's) is pretty well saturated with the same Ve- 
dantic lore, though attempting to adjust it (via 

*THE ELEMENTS OF METAPHYSICS. Being a Guide for 
Lectures and Private Use. By Dr. Paul Deussen ; trans, by 
C. M. Duff. New York : Macmillan & Co. 

THREE LECTURES ON THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY, Deliv- 
ered at the Royal Institution in March, 1894. By F. Max 
Miiller, K.M. New York : Longmans, Green, & Co. 

GENETIC PHILOSOPHY. By David J. Hill. New York : 
Macmillan & Co. 

HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY or MIND. Trans, from the Ency- 
clopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, with Five Introduc- 
tory Essays, by William Wallace, M. A. New York: Mac- 
millan & Co. 

OUR NOTIONS OF NUMBER AND SPACE. By Herbert Nichols, 
Ph.D., and William E. Parsons, A.B. Boston : Ginn & Co. 

THE DISEASES OF THE WILL. By Th. Ribot ; trans, by 
Merwin-Marie Snell. Chicago : Open Court Publishing Co. 

THE PSYCHIC FACTOR. An Outline of Psychology. By 
Charles Van Norden, D.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 

BASAL CONCEPTS IN PHILOSOPHY. An Inquiry into Being, 
Non-Being, and Becoming. By Alexander T. Ormond, Ph.D. 
New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

A PRIMER OF PHILOSOPHY. By Paul Carus, Ph.D. Chi- 
cago : Open Court Publishing Co. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



81 



Schopenhauer) more closely to modern thought, and 
we see that the existing ferment of thought is cos- 
mopolitan. 

An equal variety meets us if we attempt to class- 
ify the books from the standpoint of their subject 
matter. The collection is not fairly representative 
on the ethical side, but apart from that it contains 
four books which deal expressly with constructive 
philosophical work, three with psychological in- 
quiry, while Professor Miiller and Dr. Deussen 
again stand for that craving for something beyond 
either the rationally philosophical or the experi- 
mentally demonstrable which is so marked a 
feature of the present ; for though we may conven- 
tionally ignore the matter, yet occultism and Orien- 
talism in one form or another are most emphasized 
traits of the existing popular consciousness. 

Of the translations, not much need be said. The 
Bibot has so long been familiar to students of psy- 
chology that it is only necessary to welcome its 
appearance in English, and express thanks to the 
translator for his satisfactory work ; indeed, all of 
the translations issuing from the "Open Court" 
press reach a satisfactory standard of workmanship. 
Mr. Wallace has been known for years by his trans- 
lation of Hegel's " Logic," and his attempt with the 
" Philosophic des Geistes " is equally successful, 
while it will introduce Hegel to many in a new as- 
pect as among other things a psychologist, and, 
according to his lights and the state of knowledge 
when he wrote, a physiological psychologist. Mr. 
Wallace's introductory essays are suggestive, in- 
genious, and literary ; they represent that phase of 
the Oxford philosophical tradition which delights in 
philosophy for its culture value ( to use the current 
cant phrase), and sits very easily to its severer and 
more scientific sides the tradition which found its 
culmination in Jowett's introductions to the Platonic 
dialogues. Mr. Wallace is more serious and thor- 
ough-going in his methods than Jowett was ; but 
there is the same occasional complete inconsequence, 
the same occasional sacrifice of ideas to the needs of 
clever statement, and the same undercurrent of feel- 
ing that it is hardly worthy of an English gentleman 
and scholar to be too anxious about definiteness and 
precision in thought. Mr. Wallace has probably 
carried the art of translating Hegel as far as it can 
be carried upon present methods. It is quite pos- 
sible that a translator may sometime arise who will 
give up the attempt to find technical terminology to 
correspond to .Hegel's philosophical dialect, and set 
about doing in English what Hegel himself did in 
German (as Aristotle had done before him in Greek) 
hunting up pregnant words of idiomatic speech, 
and squeezing the philosophic meaning out of them. 
As for Dr. Deussen's work, what shall we say? 
The translation is well done ; but was the original 
worth translating? The form is largely a quasi 
geometrical method ; definitions abound, which, like 
all philosophic definitions that precede, instead of 
summing up discussion, beg the question ; disjunc- 



tions, which ingeniously conceal the problem while 
appearing to simplify it, are numerous. And 
through it all is the gospel of the Vedanta, with 
Schopenhauer as its prophet and expounder. Those 
who already know their Spinoza and Kant and 
Schopenhauer will hardly get much out of the book ; 
those who want a philosophy not for philosophic 
but for aesthetic and emotional purposes may easily 
turn from, say, theosophy to Dr. Deussen's con- 
structions of the universe. Speaking of the Indian 
philosophy brings me to Professor Miiller's book, 
which, like all his recent work, is pedantically pop- 
ular in style, written largely, if not ad captandum, 
at least ad audiendum, and yet manages to convey 
in a wonderfully easy way a large amount of useful 
information to him who can separate that informa- 
tion from its graceful entwinings with Mr. Miiller's 
own opinions and feelings about a great variety of 
subjects. 

Mr. Van Norden's title, " The Psychic Factor," 
covers an attempt to state the more elementary facts 
of psychology with especial reference to many of 
the more recent biological investigations, and with 
some emphasis on the phenomena of dreams, hyp- 
notism, etc. Mr. Van Norden is a long way from 
being a systematic thinker, but he has a keen eye 
for salient facts, and a power of lucid expression. 
His book may serve as a popular summary of many 
of the points of chief interest in current psychology. 
Mr. Nichols gives the method and results of the 
application of experimental psychology to the prob- 
lems of number and space. The work is really a 
laboratory monograph, and will appeal to the spe- 
cialist. It is symptomatic of the courage and energy 
of the modern psychologist, that he completely ig- 
nores the attempt of the metaphysician to shut off 
a little inclosure of concepts, like number and space, 
warning all experimental methods to keep off. Mr. 
Nichols's treatise on " Notions of Number and 
Space " shows that experimental methods may be 
applied with some hope of fruit to the " metaphys- 
ical " categories, but strikes me as suggestive rather 
than as conclusive. The book in form has a way 
irritating to me of stating on one side a high 
general and vague conclusion, and then one hundred 
and nine very specific conclusions, but with none of 
the media axiomata which are most helpful to other 
workers. 

There are left for consideration three attempts 
to deal constructively with philosophy. Mr. Ormond, 
in his " Basal Concepts in Philosophy," attempts the 
deepest flight. He takes up seriously and earnestly 
the problem of the relation of God to the finite 
world, and hopes to add something to its solution 
by a reconstruction of the triad of Hegelian cate- 
gories of Being, Non-Being, and Becoming, through 
a conception of Non-Being as that which the Abso- 
lute Being or Spirit continually wars against and 
suppresses, but which never, as it does in Hegel- 
ianism, becomes a moment of Being. It is obvi- 
ously out of the question to discuss Mr. Ormond's 



82 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



argument in a brief review, but I cannot refrain 
from pointing out two things. One is that, to many, 
Mr. Ormond's entire problem will seem self-made, 
factitious. This problem is, how an absolute can 
give rise to a finite, the perfect to an imperfect. 
There will be many who will want to know whence 
Mr. Ormond gets his definition of an absolute, and 
his standard of perfection ; who will inquire, what 
is the ground of the assumption that the absolute 
is absolute apart from what he terms the " finite," 
and how Mr. Ormond is so certain of the nature of 
perfection as to assume, without discussion, that 
" perfection " can get along without having as fac- 
tors of itself those things which Mr. Ormond labels 
imperfection. There are some who prefer a world 
with night as well as day, of pain as well as pleas- 
ure, of temptation as well as of a goodness which 
to them would seem tedious without the struggle of 
conquest. This may be very poor taste on their 
part, but it represents a standpoint which is not 
so much rejected as ignored by Mr. Ormond. My 
other remark is that to many Mr. Ormond's solu- 
tion of the problem of evil will appear in unstable 
equilibrium between what he would term, I suppose, 
a pantheistic optimism or monism, and the old-fash- 
ioned orthodox dualism of personal God and per- 
sonal Devil. The mind can formally follow the 
idea of an Absolute Being which in thinking itself 
has to exclude all taint of Non-Being, and so keeps 
up at once the thought of Non-Being, and the war- 
fare to exclude it. But the mind will have a feeling 
that a genuine Absolute would not have to spend 
time in contending with what, after all, is but its 
own shadow. I do not wish to seem to deal flip- 
pantly with a serious effort to think out a funda- 
mental problem, but one can hardly escape the 
conclusion that Mr. Ormond's Absolute is engaged 
in setting up a man of straw, and then never quite 
knocking the straw man down, because in that case 
it would lose this negative exercise of exclusion 
through which it maintains its own positive identity. 
Mr. Ormond does not appear to realize how essen- 
tially one his position is with that of Fichte. 

Mr. Hill's " Genetic Philosophy" deals amiably 
and readably with a large number of questions of 
genesis and evolution, bringing to bear upon prob- 
lems of the origin of life, feeling, consciousness, art, 
morality, etc., a considerable range of reading, and 
an easy style. Unfortunately, the book is marred 
by a certain pretentiousness, manifest even in its 
title. The work is in no sense itself a philosophy of 
genesis, or genetic in the sense of using a thorough- 
going evolutionary method. It simply discusses 
lucidly and with considerable discrimination certain 
specific genetic questions. The claim is even more 
emphatic and offensive in the introduction, where 
the book is offered as affording a way out of exist- 
ing philosophic confusion. 

Mr. Carus in his "Primer of Philosophy" has put 
before us in a thoughtful, yet easily grasped form, 
an attempt to combine the data and methods of 



modern science with certain metaphysical concepts, 
resulting, as he says, in a reconciliation of philo- 
sophies of the types of Mill's empiricism and Kant's 
apriorism. This spirit of synthesis and media- 
tion is prominent throughout the book, which is 
thoroughly worth reading and study. It is doubt- 
ful, however, if it will fulfil the pious wish of the 
author and set the stranded ship of philosophy 
afloat again; indeed, were the ship of philosophy 
stranded, I doubt the ability of the united efforts of 
the whole race to get it afloat. It is wiser to think 
of the ship of philosophy as always afloat, but al- 
ways needing, not, indeed, the impetus of any in- 
dividual thinker, but the added sense of direction 
which the individual can give by some further, how- 
ever slight, interpretation of the world about. 

JOHN DEWEY. 



RECENT AMERICAN POETRY.* 



There comes to the life of most poets a period 
when poetic inspiration flags, when the thought no 
longer finds free and almost spontaneous expression 
in rhythmical numbers, but needs rather to be 
jogged by a striking incident or the flow of emo- 
tion about some theme forcibly brought into contem- 
plation. Under such stimulus, the old poetic energy 
revives, and even produces a fair counterfeit of the 
fluent expression of earlier days. But " the sound 
is forced, the notes are few," and we must accept 
the finer artistic sense that comes with years, and 
the poetic self-consciousness more completely real- 
ized, as the only possible compensations for the les- 
sened volume and momentum of the stream of in- 
spiration. Some such reflections as these must come 
to readers of the new volume of verse which bears 
the name of Mr. Aldrich upon its title-page ; al- 
though the lesson is not so apparent in the case of 
one who has been more or less consciously an artist 

* UNGUARDED GATES, and Other Poems. By Thomas Bai- 
ley Aldrich. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

POEMS NEW AND OLD. By William Roscoe Thayer. Bos- 
ton : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

IN SUNSHINE LAND. By Edith M. Thomas. Boston : 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

NABRAGANSETT BALLADS, with Songs and Lyrics. By 
Caroline Hazard. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

SONGS FROM VAGABONDIA. By Bliss Carman and Rich- 
ard Hovey. Boston : Copeland & Day. 

LINCOLN'S GRAVE. By Maurice Thompson. Chicago : 
Stone & Kimball. 

INTIMATIONS OF THE BEAUTIFUL, and Poems. By Madi- 
son Cawein. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

THE WIND IN THE CLEARING, and Other Poems. By Rob- 
ert Cameron Rogers. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

MADONNA, and Other Poems. Written by Harrison S. 
Morris. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 

THE FLUTE PLAYER, and Other Poems. By Francis How- 
ard Williams. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

A PATCH OF PANSIES. By J. Edmund V. Cooke. New 
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

PENRHYN'S PILGRIMAGE. By Arthur Peterson, U. S. N. 
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



83 



throughout his career as it might be in another's. 
The fine heroics upon our national " Unguarded 
Gates " offer a striking illustration of the power 
possessed by a noble theme to quicken into renewed 
flame the failing embers of the poetic fire. 

" Liberty, white Goddess ! is it well 
To leave the gates unguarded ? On thy breast 
Fold Sorrow's children, soothe the hurts of fate, 
Lift the down-trodden, but with hand of steel 
Stay those who to thy sacred portals come 
To waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care 
Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn 
And trampled in the dust. For so of old 
The thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome, 
And where the temples of the Ctesars stood 
The lean wolf unmolested made her lair." 

The considerable proportion of personal and occa- 
sional poems in the present collection helps to illus- 
trate our introductory thesis. And here again, the 
inspiration being given, we have verses that Mr. 
Aldrich has never surpassed, personal tributes of 
the most heartfelt gratitude conveyed in the most 
polished verse. In a previous review we quoted 
from a volume by Mr. Aldrich his tribute to Ten- 
nyson. Let us upon this occasion quote another, 
written before the Laureate's death, and appropri- 
ately linking his name with that of the greatest 
among his contemporaries. 

" When from the tense chords of that mighty lyre 
The Master's hand, relaxing, falls away, 

And those rich strings are silent for all time, 
Then shall Love pine, and Passion lack her fire, 
And Faith seem voiceless. Man to man shall say, 
' Dead is the last of England's Lords of Rhyme.' 

" Yet stay ! there 's one, a later laureled brow, 
With purple blood of poets in his veins ; 

Him has the Muse claimed ; him might Marlowe own ; 
Greek Sappho's son ! men's praises seek him now. 
Happy the realm where one such voice remains ! 
His the dropt wreath and the unenvied throne. 

" The wreath the world gives, not the mimic wreath 
That chance might make the gift of king or queen. 

finder of undreamed-of harmonies ! 
Since Shelley's lips were hushed by cruel death, 
What lyric voice so sweet as this has been 
Borne to us on the winds from over seas ? " 

The poems inscribed to Lowell, Holmes, and Grant 
should also be mentioned as among the best of the 
volume. In one of his sonnets Mr. Aldrich says : 

" I must have known 
Life otherwhere in epochs long since fled ; 
For in my veins some Orient blood is red, 
And through my thought are lotus blossoms blown," 

and the statement is illustrated by two of those 
Eastern apologues which have been so noteworthy 
a feature of his preceding volumes. And then there 
are sonnets and lyrics and delicate cameo-like quat- 
rains in the new volume, and we may well give 
thanks that a poet is left among us who can do all 
or any of these things as artistically as they are 
done here. 

Ten years ago, writing over the signature of 
" Paul Hermes," Mr. William Roscoe Thayer pub- 
lished a volume of verse entitled " The Confessions 
of Hermes, and Other Poems." He has now gath- 



ered into a volume of " Poems New and Old " the 
best of the earlier pieces, and a much larger num- 
ber of later ones, among the latter being several 
upon Oriental themes. When we reviewed the vol- 
ume of ten years ago [June, 1885] we gave credit 
to the earnest purpose of the writer, but were com- 
pelled to comment somewhat severely upon the tech- 
nical shortcomings of his verse. In spite of a per- 
ceptible advance in his technique, Mr. Thayer's 
verse is still deficient in the true rhythmical quality, 
and is still weighted with prosaic turns and phrases. 
In fact, the very things that we have marked as 
among the best in the new volume turn out to have 
been already published in the older one. Mr. Thayer 
is at his best in such a poem as the sea-shore " Rev- 
erie," from which we now quote : 

" Sweet is it over shelving sands to stroll 
When the victorious tide begins to lose, 
And watch the stubborn-yielding billows roll, 
Or look upon the mid-sea's scudding hues, 
Sweet is it then to loiter and to muse." 

To the mental vision of such a loiterer scenes like 
these appear : 

" Here rise the saucy, unobsequious waves 
To wet the sandals of the Danish King ; 
Here spectral pirates crawl from nameless graves 
And count again their booty, quarreling ; 
And here Pizarro draws the fatal ring. 

" Columbus kneels exultant, and unfurls 
The cognizance of Christ and Ferdinand ; 
Here weeping mothers and bewilder'd girls 
Cry out ' God speed ye ! ' to the Mayflower band, 
Long after sails are hidden from the land. 

" And Bonaparte here reconstructs his doom, 
Reversing Waterloo, or peers afar 
Till Breton cliffs along the horizon loom 
In bitter-sweet mirage ; this sodden spar 
Bore Nelson's duty-sign at Trafalgar." 

Such verse as this, fed by culture and the historical 
consciousness, is always acceptable, although not 
poetry in any high sense. 

" In Sunshine Land " is a collection of verses 
ostensibly for children, but they have a serious 
poetic value, and must be classed with such books 
as Miss Rossetti's " Sing-Song," Marston's "Garden 
Secrets," and Stevenson's " A Child's Garden of 
Verses," all three of which works they at times sug- 
gest. Miss Thomas has exhibited in this volume a 
surprising daintiness of touch and delicacy of feel- 
ing ; a surprising insight, also, into the workings of 
the child mind. Nothing could be lovelier in its 
way than " Sylvia and the Birds," with which the 
volume opens. But no extract could do justice to 
this glorified prattle. We will rather take the close 
of " The Ancient History of the Flowers ": 

" The red Lobelia lit a fire, and flung 
The embers all around a shady dell ; 
The Daisy had a gypsy's crafty tongue, 
And youthful fortunes glibly would she tell ! 

" The Asters were a shower of stars that fell 
Amid the dimness of an autumn night, 
Witch-hazel woke, and cheerily cried, ' All 's well ! ' 
And met with smiles the dull November light." 



84 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



"The Young Geologist," more nearly in the sober 
philosophic vein of the author than most of these 
pieces, may also be quoted : 

" Comes one with searching look 
To read the great Stone Book ; 
With youthful brows perplexed, 
He scans the rugged text. 

" The knuckled rock he taps, 
And ancient thunders lapse, 
With deep imagined thud, 
On beaches of the flood. 

" Old summers bud and bloom, 
And sink into a tomb : 
He sees them bloom again 
Upon the hearths of men. 

" Life went with striding pace, 
He hunts upon its trace : 
A track a rib a tooth 
What birds and beasts uncouth ! 

" Youth bends with baffled look, 
Above the great Stone Book ; 
The title-page is dim, 
The Finis not for him." 

Possibly a very young geologist may not see all these 
things, but the poem is very lovely for all that. 

Miss Hazard's " Narragansett Ballads " versify a 
number of incidents of colonial times, including the 
Great Swamp Fight of 1675, and jog along in some 
such fashion as this : 

" Connecticut had sent her men 
With Major Robert Treat ; 
Each Colony in its degree 
Sent in its quota meet." 

The verse is not exactly inspired, and we can hardly 
say more for the " Songs and Lyrics " of the second 
half of the volume, although there are at the close 
some rather pretty pieces upon Californian themes. 
The " Songs from Vagabondia," which Mr. Bliss 
Carman and Mr. Richard Hovey have put forth to- 
gether, are of very unequal quality. Interspersed 
among verses as irregular and reckless as the vaga- 
bond life they celebrate, we find here and there so 
noble a poem as "The Mendicant," or the stanzas 
called "Contemporaries." We quote from the 



former 



" O foolish ones, put by your care ! 
Where wants are many, joys are few; 
And at the wilding springs of peace, 
God keeps an open house for you. 

" But that some Fortunatus' gift 
Is lying there within his hand, 
More costly than a pot of pearls 
His dulness does not understand. 

" And so his creature heart is filled ; 
His shrunken self goes starved away. 
Let him wear brand-new garments still, 
Who has a threadbare soul, I say. 

" But there be others, happier few, 
The vagabondish sons of God, 
Who know the by-ways and the flowers, 
And care not how the world may plod. 

" They idle down the traffic lands, 
And loiter through the woods with spring, 
To them the glory of the earth 
Is but to hear a bluebird sing. 



" They too receive each one his Day ; 
But their wise heart knows many things 
Beyond the sating of Desire, 
Above the dignity of Kings." 

This poem, at least, we do not hesitate to ascribe 
to the lyrist of Grand Pre", however we may doubt 
the authorship of many among the others. And, 
in general, the contents of this volume offer a group- 
ing that a sensitive ear can hardly miss. There are 
poems which are rollicking, and poems which are 
not. And the poems which are not are those which 
are the most pleasing and the most artistic. 

"May one who fought in honor for the South 
Uncovered stand and sing by Lincoln's grave ? " 

asks Mr. Maurice Thompson, at the opening of his 
Phi Beta Kappa poem, read at Harvard a year 
ago. The apologetic question, we should say, needs 
no answer other than the poem itself, which is dig- 
nified, worthy of the subject and occasion, and soars 
to a higher flight than any of which we had thought 
the writer capable. One stanza of the thirty-six 
must suffice to illustrate both the form and the spirit 
of this poem. 

"His was the tireless strength of native truth, 
The might of rugged, untaught earnestness ; 
Deep-freezing poverty made brave his youth, 
And toned his manhood with its winter stress 
Up to the temper of heroic worth, 
And wrought him to a crystal clear and pure, 
To mark how Nature in her highest mood 

Scorns at our pride of birth, 
And ever plants the life that must endure 
In the strong soil of wintry solitude." 

Mr. Cawein has now published five volumes of 
poems, yet the promise of the first volume is but 
imperfectly fulfilled by the last. Some measure of 
restraint has been imposed upon his native exuber- 
ance, but still more is needed ; some approach has 
been made to definiteness of thought, but the inane 
yet remains too largely his element. Nor do we find 
the improvement in finish that so much practice 
ought surely to have brought about. In the long 
title poem, for example, we come upon so unpardon- 
able a solecism as this : 

" Idea, God of Plato ! one 

With beauty, justice, truth, and love : 
Who, type by type, the world begun 
From an ideal world above ! ' ' 

He might as well have written 

"Who, type by type, creation done 
Shape from the ideal world above." 

Vague yearnings and nebulous imaginings form the 
stuff of too many of these pieces. Now and then, 
however, we come upon a pure and simple strain, as 
in these verses from "The Argonauts": 

" Behold ! he sails no earthly barque, 

And on no earthly sea ; 
Adown the years he sails the dark 
Deeps of futurity. 

' ' Ideals are the ships of Greece 

His purpose steers afar ; 
The skies, his seas ; the Golden Fleece 
He seeks, the farthest star." 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



85 



Of course it is not fair to criticise a lyrical Pegasus 
for preferring cloudland to earth, but it may be sug- 
gested that Pirene \vas, after all, an earthly spring, 
and that from its waters the fabled steed took re- 
newed strength for flight. 

A new-comer in the ranks, Mr. Robert Cameron 
Rogers, has taken poetic inspiration from much the 
same sort of themes as Mr. Cawein from the mys- 
teries of nature and the beauties of classic legend 
but has made of it a more human use. Indeed, 
our prosaic comment upon the importance of keep- 
ing touch with earth might be richly illustrated by 
" The Wind in the Clearing," Mr. Rogers's title- 
poem ; or, better still, replaced by these verses 
called " Theory," having for their text the Virgil- 
ian " Sunt geminae somni portse." 

" She was so beautiful I could but follow ; 

Her words seemed truth itself, I could not doubt, 
And so she led me out beyond the hollow 
Half-hearted living of the world about. 

" Steep though the upward path, without misgiving 

I followed as she led, and more and more 
She grew to seem the guide to that true living 
That I had set my life to looking for. 

" Footsore I grew and faint, through never nearing 

The goal, yet hopeful ever of the prize, 

When suddenly, athwart my path appearing, 

I saw a distant gleaming barrier rise ; 

" A sheer white wall, pierced by a single gateway, 

Guarding twin doors of ivory finely cut, 
Twin doors that as I neared them opened straightway, 
And passed my leader through and swiftly shut. 

. " But when I came and stood beside them knocking, 

And strove to move the strong-joined silent beams, 
Forth came a voice in sadness half, half mocking, 
' Thou fool, go back, this is the gate of dreams.' " 

Mr. Rogers has written some spirited lyrics, some 
good classical idyls, some tender memorial pieces, 
and a few fine sonnets. From one of the latter 
called " I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills " we 
reproduce the sestet : 

" Sweet is the valley music, sweet the hum 
Of bees, but on beyond the upland mist 
Which sets false barriers to feeble wills, 
Are triumph tones, sonorous chords, that come, 
As from the touch of some strong organist 
Hidden amid the transepts of the hills." 

Mr. Harrison S. Morris also is a new-comer among 
our American poets, and not often do we witness so 
successful a debut. " Madonna and Other Poems " 
comprises over a hundred pieces, nearly every one 
of which bears the marks of careful workmanship, 
and no small number of which strike a note of ex- 
ceptional delicacy and purity. The predominant 
trait of the collection is a feeling for nature at once 
so sympathetic and so just as to recall the masters. 
It is true that Mr. Morris employs the conventional 
imagery, but the lightness of touch and the dainti- 
ness of his work make acceptable this new use of 
the old material. Imbued with the romantic spirit, 
and having a distinctive dash of sensuousness (in 
the good Miltonic signification) , these poems derive 
rather from Keats than from Wordsworth to name 



the two poets of whom we first think as the high 
priests of the cult of nature. We reproduce as a 
typical example the sonnet styled "A Touch of 
Frost." 

" But yesterday the leaves, the tepid rills, 
The muddy furrows, wore a summer haze ; 
The cattle rested from the yellow rays, 
Bough-cool and careless of the piping bills. 
No breath, no omen of the far-off ills 
Shuddered the air. To-day the hardened ways 
Lie drifted with the dead of summer days ; 
The year lies sheaved upon the autumn hills. 

" There in the sunburnt stacks the beauty sleeps 
Of beam and shower, dawn, and silver dew, 

Whisper of woody dusk, and upward deeps 
Of moonlight when the air is crystal blue. 

The bending farmer gathers into heaps 
A harvest with the summer woven through." 

Most of Mr. Morris's pieces are in lyrical form, or 
the allied form of the sonnet ; the most noteworthy 
exceptions are " Love's Revenge," a long Italian 
romance in six-line stanza, and " Amymone," a 
blank-verse idyl which might be printed among 
Landor's " Hellenics " without being detected as an 
interpolation by more than one reader out of ten. 

Every poet nowadays has to write a "sonnet- 
sequence," and so Mr. Francis Howard Williams has 
accepted the inevitable. His sequence consists of 
a sonnet for every hour of the twenty-four, begin- 
ning with one o'clock in the morning, an hour when 
most people are oblivious of sonnets and all other 
vanities. Mr. Williams's work deserves considerable 
praise for its finish and wholesome sentiment. We 
quote the last of the series, the rhyme of the mid- 
night hour : 

" Oh ! tender benison of darkness, cast 

Upon the throbbing bosom of the earth, 
Dropt as a mantle over all the mirth 
And madness of the day, thou ever hast 
A sweet compassion for us. and at last 
A poppied peace. I gaze upon the girth 
Of heaven, heavy with the rare new birth 
Of beauty crescent through the spaces vast, 

" The while the unruffled forehead of the night 
Lifts royally its diadem of stars ; 

Then, as a sleeper fares adown his way 
'Mid dreamy meadows, lying still and white, 

I thread the moonlit lane, pass through the bare, 
And close the record of an idle day." 

Mr. Williams is not only a sonneteer, but a writer 
of lyrics, odes, and dramatic pieces, as well. His 
" Ave America " is a patriotic outburst which echoes 
the passion of Lowell, and is not unworthy of its 
model or its theme. There are some pretty pieces 
in lighter vein at the close of the collection, includ- 
ing a certain " Ballad to a Bookman " which readers 
of THE DIAL will probably remember. On the 
whole, Mr. Williams seems to have won his spurs, 
and the ranks of our minor poets must open to ad- 
mit this new singer of very creditable song. 

Mr. Cooke's " Patch of Pansies " is a collection 
of verse, mostly trifling, that has been contributed 
to newspapers and other periodicals. It calls for 
no particular comment, but a brief example may be 
given : 



86 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



" ' Unwept, unhonored, and unsung ' 

Were not the worst of Fortune's bringing ; 
Dread, rather, thine own eyes and tongue 

Unweeping and unsinging. 
Unweeping for thy brother, bound 

But struggling in the sombre Night, 
Unsinging from thy vantage-ground 

The happy tidings of the Light." 

This is a clear-cut thought, well expressed, but it is 
hardly poetry. A curious feature of Mr. Cooke's 
volume is that one dedication does not suffice ; the 
pieces are grouped, and for each group a distinct 
patron is invoked. 

" Penrhyn's Pilgrimage " is a series of versified 
impressions of travel in the East Japan, China, 
and Egypt. A couple of the stanzas to " Mount 
Fuji" will illustrate the form of the narrative and 
something better than the average of its inspiration. 

" O matchless mount, the centuries die 

And, moldering, form the forgotten past ; 
But still thy wooded base stands fast, 
Still thy white dome salutes the sky ! 

" At night I see thy snowy stair 

Ascending through the circling storm ; 
At morn behold thy graceful form 
Spring, like a flower, into the air." 

Whatever the ambition of our verse-addicted trav- 
eller, he should have refrained from seeking to bend 
Lord Tennyson's metrical bow. 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. 



BRIEFS ox XEW BOOKS. 



The second volume of Mr. Edgar 
Stanton Maclay's "History of the 
United States Navy" (Appleton) 
falls no whit behind its fellow in interest and 
graphic quality, though the incidents seem at times 
a little crowded. Over-compression, however, is a 
fault on the right side. Mr. Maclay is distinctly 
the narrator not the historical generalizer or the 
critic of naval evolutions and armaments, like 
Captain Mahan. He tells a mainly unglossed story 
of the achievements of the American navy ; and 
when he warms to his work as in the accounts of 
the romantic sea-duels of 1812, where individual 
pluck and real seamanship counted, and before 
the gallant frigates of the Decaturs and Barneys 
gave way to the ignominious tanks and "tea-ket- 
tles " of modern marine he tells it in a style not 
unworthy of Cooper and Smollett. The volume 
opens with the events of the latter half of the war 
of 1812, thence passes on to the " Minor Wars and 
Expeditions " from 1815 to 1861 (including the war 
with Algiers, Perry's Japan Expedition, etc.), and 
closes with a detailed account of the naval opera- 
tions of the Civil War. The text is liberally illus- 
trated with wood-cuts, full-page and vignette, and 
there are plenty of maps and charts. The follow- 
ing extract from the London " Times " of Decem- 
ber 30, 1814, touching the issue of the war of 1812, 
is interesting as showing how Englishmen of the 



two English poets. 



time regarded that event, which later writers have 
tried to explain away: "We have retired from the 
combat with the stripes yet bleeding on our backs. 
. . . To say that it [the national maritime reputa- 
tion] has not hitherto suffered in the estimation of 
all Europe, and, what is worse, of America herself, 
is to belie common sense and universal experience. 
. . . Scarcely is there an American ship of war 
which has not to boast a victory over the British 
flag ; scarcely one British ship in thirty or forty that 
has beaten an American. With the bravest sea- 
men and the most powerful navy in the world, we 
retire from the contest when the balance of defeat 
is so heavy against us." This was written, be it 
added, before the news had reached England of 
the capture of the "Cyane " and the " Levant" by 
the "Constitution," the disabling of the "Endy- 
mion " by the " President," or the brilliant victory 
of the "Hornet" over the "Penguin." The story 
of our navy is a brilliant chapter in American his- 
tory ; and Mr. Maclay, writing con amore and with 
a good knowledge of his theme, has told it acceptably. 

The lover of literature will be satis- 
fie( j to nave upon fa s sne lves nothing 



less than the complete works ot the 
great poets, and we deprecate the practice of mak- 
ing "selections" from such men as Shelley and 
Tennyson, as much as we applaud the enterprise 
that has given us the entire poetic product of these 
men, as well as of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold, 
and others (to say nothing of the "Globe" Shake- 
speare, the new Chaucer, and the new Dante) in 
single compact and carefully-edited volumes. But 
when it comes to poets not of the first rank, " selec- 
tions" are as helpful as they are in the other case 
harmful. In fact, the really competent student and 
critic of poetry can hardly find a more praiseworthy 
task than that of carefully gleaning from the total 
product of some estimable but unmistakably minor 
poet the best parts of his work. The lease of life 
of such a poet is really renewed by this process; it 
gives him, as a rule, his one chance of impressing 
the generation that succeeds his own. Two books 
of the sort described are now before us : Professor 
George E. Woodberry's volume of " Selections from 
the Poems of Aubrey De Vere" (Macmillan), and 
Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton's similar selection 
from the poems of Arthur O'Shaughnessy (Stone 
& Kimball). Each of the books has a portrait and 
an introductory essay. The essay on Mr. De Vere 
is one of those pieces of serious critical workman- 
ship that Mr. Woodberry so well knows how to pro- 
duce. The characteristics of the poet are seized 
upon with unerring discernment. Mr. De Vere's 
poems are memorable for their " praise of the life 
of the lowly, in the old Christian sense," for their 
" praise of devotion, that loyal surrender to a man 
or a cause, which is one of the ideal passions of 
Love," and for their unfailing purity and faith. 
"In all this poetry, however its phases may be 
successively turned to the eye, or itself be inwardly 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



87 



searched, there is one light and one breath the 
light of the Spirit and the breath thereof." These 
are noble ideals, and Mr. De Vere has steadfastly 
lived up to them throughout his long and active 
career. The storehouse of Irish legend has been 
put by him to such poetic uses as few if any others 
have achieved, and poems upon these national 
themes necessarily make up the greater part of those 
included in Mr. Woodberry's selection. Yet it seems 
to us that the poet has done his best work in the 
briefer forms of the lyric and the sonnet, and these 
also are well represented. We Americans owe Mr. 
De Vere a peculiar debt of gratitude for his sym- 
pathy with our national cause during the years of 
civil dissension, a sympathy that found expression 
in many ways, and not least in the noble sonnets 
" On the Centenary of American Liberty " and 
" The American Struggle." Mrs. Moulton, whose 
intimate associations with the group of writers to 
which O'Shaughnessy belonged peculiarly qualified 
her for the task of editing a volume of his poems, 
has done her work admirably. The best things 
have been chosen from the poet's four volumes, and 
the sketch of O'Shaughnessy's life is tastefully and 
tactfully written. His was an uncompleted exist- 
ence, and his last (posthumous) volume seemed to 
be " the tentative work of a poet in a transition 
state." "He had taken to himself a larger harp, 
but he had not yet completely strung it." Had he 
lived, the editor goes on to say, "he would have 
learned how to clothe his passion for humanity with 
the same tender grace with which in earlier days he 
sang the love of woman." As it is, no lover of 
poetry can afford to remain entirely unacquainted 
with his work, and Mrs. Moulton's volume will help 
to keep green his memory. 

The interest in folk-song and folk- 
lore is not only spreading but deep- 
ening; it surely does not deserve to 
be stigmatized as a fad. Neither the romantic en- 
thusiasts, the Percys and Scotts of a century ago, nor 
the scientific investigators, the Childs and Grundt- 
vigs of our own time, have been mere antiquaries 
and collectors ; the human interest of what they 
found, collated, and elucidated, is too great, and 
has been from the first too generally acknowledged. 
The interest in ballads to-day is simply the genuine 
thing we may always expect, 

" When that which drew from out the boundless deep 
Turns again home." 

But the " merry art is dead," the merry art of bal- 
lad-making. So we, robbed of the merry pastime 
of "lything and listening," must content ourselves 
with a ballad-book; and we may well content our- 
selves with such an one as Professor Gummere's 
"Old English Ballads" (Ginn), which gives us in 
three hundred pages the text of fifty odd ballads, 
and in nearly two hundred more an introduction, 
notes, a glossary, and appendixes on the ballads of 
Europe, on metre, style, and form, and on minstrels, 
and the authorship of ballads. Meeting the various 



Old English 
Ballads. 



demands of what a ballad-book should be, this is the 
best edition for practical purposes. The text is open 
to criticism, especially of the subjective kind ; but it 
is in the main sound, adhering to the traditions as 
preserved by Professor Child. Occasional emenda- 
tions are made but always from another text in 
Child ; in the case of some ballads the text is com- 
posite ; none of the letters peculiar to mediaeval 
MSS. have been retained. In the full introduction, 
originally a series of five lectures delivered at Johns 
Hopkins University, Professor Gummere etches with 
a caustic pen the progress of ballad criticism from 
Herder down. For his own part he insists upon the 
distinction between popular (" communal ") poetry 
and the poetry of the schools, which may attain pop- 
ularity, be for the people, but is not in any sense 
poetry of the people. Full and minute references 
to a host of critics, scholars, and philologians, make 
this introduction, supplemented by the appendixes, 
a veritable introduction to the study of ballad liter- 
ature. The notes and glossary are less full, leaving 
much desirable information to be obtained from 
sources notably Professor Child's monumental 
collection to which, after all, only the few have 
access. The printing of the ballad title, rather than 
the title of the book, at the top of the page, would 
have made reference easier and occasional brows- 
ing more satisfactory ; it is a more serious mistake 
that there are in the notes no references to pages, 
nor any indication of the order in which the ballads 
are printed. But the real excellences of the work 
are of a rarer kind and are great. 

The forty-second volume of Putnam's 
" Story of the Nations " series is 
given to Venice, and is written by 
Mrs. Alethea Wiel. As the author modestly con- 
fesses in her preface, the complete and definitive 
account of Venetian history, whether in Italian or 
English, has yet to be produced. Meanwhile this 
work will serve presumably an honest purpose, as 
faithfully tracing the fortunes of that Republic, 
from her mysterious origin to the noble spectacle 
of her supremacy, and thence her moral degrada- 
tion and final cession to Austria in 1798. A post- 
script of eight pages attempts to sketch the last cen- 
tury of her existence. The volume is furnished with 
a list of the Doges, a generous index, and numerous 
soft-toned prints of photographs and paintings. One 
misses here the style of a Symonds or an Oliphant ; 
nay, he half suspects, after reading several chapters, 
that the authoress is an inveterate Freemanite, and 
thanks God she has " no style," which is tenfold 
the affront to opalescent, silver-tongued Venice it 
could be to Sicily, perhaps. It is very easy to mis- 
take the materials of history for history itself, espe- 
cially when one has access to the Venetian archives, 
so full of the most detailed narrative " a hundred 
piping voices "; yet accuracy of investigation is a 
strongly redeeming virtue when there have been so 
many picturesque dabs into the story, never sacri- 
ficing it for the sake of truth. " An author," said 



The Story 
of Venice. 



88 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



Lowell, " shrfuld consider how largely the art of 
writing consists in knowing what to leave in the 
ink-stand." Many of Mrs. Wiel's sentences are 
weighed down with a surplusage of nouns or adjec- 
tives at the cost of their effectiveness. At the very 
beginning of the first chapter, for instance, we are 
informed that " it may he well to consider for a mo- 
ment the manner in which the dwellings and habi- 
tations which formed the town took shape and be- 
ing, and also what measures were adopted to secure 
the ground whereon these homes and houses were 
about to be established." This rhetorical trick of 
using in pairs words of nearly the same meaning 
amounts to a mannerism with the writer, or it were 
endurable, like the occasional sight of Siamese twins. 
But " entirety and completeness," " exaction and de- 
mand," " advantage and gain," " marks and indi- 
cations," "slaughter and carnage," "attic or gar- 
ret," " haughty and overbearing " in Mr. Bagehot's 
words relative to Demosthenes' use of pebbles, we 
cannot dwell on it ; it is too much. The style of the 
historian of Venice need not be over-ornate, but 
it should be picturesque and accurate. 

Five critical studies of impressionist 
S5S18S!? type, haying for their respective sub- 
jects Heine, Rossetti, Marston, Rob- 
ertson of Brighton, and Mrs. Louise Chandler Moul- 
ton, are grouped by Mr. Coulson Kernahan into a 
pretty volume called "Sorrow and Song" (Lippin- 
cott). This title is not happily chosen* for two 
reasons: it was preempted twenty years ago for a 
similar purpose by Mr. Henry Curwen, and it is not 
applicable to all of the contents of the volume, since 
Robertson was not a singer, and since Mrs. Moul- 
ton's life has not been, as far as we know, typically 
sorrowful, however pervasive may be the minor 
strain of her song. The style of these essays is 
somewhat pretentious, but is often marked by a 
grave beauty, and they contain much penetrating 
criticism inspired by a close sympathy with their 
subjects. A passage from the Rossetti paper has a 
well-deserved fling at the moralists who insist that 
art shall always be didactic : " The folk who can 
call nothing good unless it carry, dog-like, at its 
tail a tin can of noisy and rattling morality, and the 
critics who forgetting that the very over-weight- 
ing of individuality, genius, as we call it, which 
gives a man such power on one side and in one 
direction, necessitates, by natural and inevitable 
law, a corresponding under-balance on the other 
cannot award their grudging meed of praise for 
honest work done, without complaining that some- 
thing else has been left undone, are a thankless set." 
The sentiment of this passage, by the way, is much 
better than the form. The study of Robertson gives 
due praise to that rare and noble character, and 
emphasizes the absolute sincerity that was his 
strength. It is the frequent lack of such sincerity 
in the profession which he adorned that makes the 
writer question " whether there is any educated class 
whose testimony carries less weight with the out- 



Nineteen 

American 

Authors, 



side world to-day than that which follows religion 
as a profession." We fear that thei*e is only too 
much truth in this suggestion. Mr. Kernahan's 
tribute to Mrs. Moulton is finely appreciative, and 
hardly claims too much for a singer of whom we 
have great reason to be proud. If three or four of 
the women among us who are, or have been, poets 
are likely to live, Mrs. Moulton is surely one of the 
number. 

"American Writers of To-Day "(Sil- 
ver, Burdett & Co.), by Mr. Henry 
C. Vedder, is a series of nineteen 
brief essays upon as many American authors, all of 
whom but Mr. Parkman are still living. Nearly 
all of our best known men and women of letters 
are included. Since each of these essays is limited 
to about a score of pages, one must not look for 
any very exhaustive treatment ; nor has the author 
aimed at such. His critical remai'ks are interspersed 
with a few biographical details, although anything 
like a real biographical sketch is not attempted. As 
for the author's criticism, it is mostly of the obvious 
current sort, and hardly rises above the common- 
place. A generous impulse to set each subject in 
the best light is everywhere observable. A few 
minor points seem to call for comment. The open- 
ing statement that " America has as yet produced 
no poet who was poet and nothing else " is, of 
course, strictly true ; but the implied contrast with 
England would nearly disappear upon scrutiny. 
The parenthetical observation upon Tennyson's 
" Timbuctoo " is too disparaging. The " Library 
of American Literature " is in eleven volumes, not 
ten. Mr. Howells's " One Villain " is not named 
Bradley Hubbard. To call " Huckleberry Finn " 
trash, while praising, for example, " A Yankee at 
the Court of King Arthur," is to upset criticism 
altogether. To say " We have aesthetes in plenty, 
like Wilde and Pater," is something like saying 
" We have poets in plenty, like Tupper and Tenny- 
son." Finally, the remark that " American society 
is not quite guiltless of Becky Sharps " tempts us to 
ask why in the name of Heaven somebody does not 
discover one of them and thereby become the Great 
American Novelist. 



It is a rich and inspiring life that is 
ApMianthropurs portraye d in the " Life and Letters 

hfe and letters. r > . 

of Charles Lormg Brace (Scribner) , 
which has been given us by his daughter. Mr. 
Brace is known to the world as the father of one 
of the greatest of modern philanthropic movements, 
and for forty years its moving force. The Chil- 
dren's Aid Society has acted directly upon five hun- 
dred thousand boys and girls; while the indirect 
benefits to society, in draining off from New York 
a vast number who would have developed into crim- 
inals, and in working out a scheme of beneficence 
that has been widely copied on both sides of the 
sea, cannot be estimated. The spirit, methods, and 
principles of this great charity are clearly brought 
out in this book, making it of special value to the 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



89 



student of philanthropy. But its chief interest lies 
in the personality of the remarkable man who was 
himself more than his achievements. His clear in- 
sight into the needs of the wretched classes, and 
into the principles of true charity, is shown by the 
fact that the preliminary circular of the society, 
though far in advance of the thinking of the time, 
contained in the germ the whole vast and varied 
work which the society has since undertaken. This 
insight was united with a sober and critical judg- 
ment that made Mr. Brace a safe leader, and won 
for him the full confidence of the influential men 
of his city, and later of England and America. 
Enthusiasm for humanity, high spiritual and moral 
ideals, ardent patriotism, keen intellectual curiosity, 
great power in winning and keeping friends, and 
the success of his philanthropic work, all combined 
to make him a benefactor of his country and one of 
the foremost men of his time. The charm of this 
biography is due largely to the good taste and the 
sense of proportion of the author. 



The paragraph 
in English 



The first doctor's dissertation that 
has come to us from the English De- 
par tment of the University of Chi- 
cago testifies to the solidity and scientific thorough- 
ness of the graduate work done in that institution. 
It is a monograph on " The History of the English 
Paragraph," by Mr. Edwin Herbert Lewis, a work 
of two hundred pages and of infinite industry. Mr. 
Lewis has read a considerable portion of English 
literature for the express purpose of determining 
the characteristics of the paragraph, from the ninth 
to the nineteenth century, from Alfred to Holmes. 
He has counted the words and sentences in many 
thousands of paragraphs, and tabulated the results, 
leading to the somewhat barren conclusion that the 
length of the paragraph has not decreased with the 
sentence-length. He also discusses the mechanical 
signs and rhetorical theories of the paragraph, 
and some of the latest investigations into the struc- 
ture of English prose. In short, no labor seems to 
have been spared in bringing together or calcu- 
lating all the facts of any conceivable interest bear- 
ing upon the subject of this monograph. But we 
must confess, while paying admiring tribute to the 
industry and scientific spirit of a study like this, that 
it is not exactly our ideal of the work to be aimed 
at by a great school of literary study. And the 
author's results and tabulations are probably of less 
value to him than the intimate acquaintance with 
our literature that must have been acquired during 
the prosecution of the investigation. 



A pungent 
collection 
of essays. 



A very pungent collection of essays 
is Mr. Walter Blackburn Harte's 
" Meditations in Motley" (The Arena 
Co.). The author has an ample stock of convictions 
(sometimes a little crotchetty , perhaps) and he states 
them with refreshing point and candor. Mr. Harte's 
titles are: " On Certain Satisfactions of Prejudice"; 
"Jacobitism in Boston"; "About Critics and Crit- 



icism "; " Some Masks and Faces of Literature "; 
and " A Rhapsody on Music." " Essays " is hardly 
the best descriptive term for the papers Mr. 
Harte's hand being neither light nor his temper 
easy. Your true essayist is mostly a bit of a posem, 
a minter of nice phrases, something of a literary 
Turveydrop, in fact, who is much more concerned 
about his " deportment " than his matter. Style, 
or neatness of style, is scarcely Mr. Harte's strong 
point. There are too many long sentences, too 
many parentheses, and one notes here and there ex- 
pressions a shade too robust for the occasion, or for 
any occasion. What Mr. Harte lacks in urbanity 
he makes up in earnestness, his book being full of 
honest hammer - strokes of the plain truth that 
" shames the devil " and a good many besides. A 
notable paper is the one called " Some Masks and 
Faces of Literature." Here the author draws a 
most stinging indictment of sensational and mer- 
cenary journalism that is doubly effective in that 
he is himself a journalist speaking " out of the bit- 
terness of a full knowledge." The most tragical 
thing, Mr. Harte thinks, " about this horrible busi- 
ness of news-mongering, as we see it in this country, 
in its most degraded and impudent form, is not so 
much that it panders to the lowest elements of so- 
ciety, but that its huge vortex swallows up and de- 
bases and strangles so many fine, generous, noble 
natures, who might perhaps have made the world 
better for their having been in it. ... ( The dyer's 
hand is subdued to what it works in.' " The volume 
justifies the growing literary vogue of its author. 

The thirteenth annual report of the 
^ante Society, just published (Ginn), 
gives the customary list of accessions 
to the Dante collection in the Harvard College 
library, and Mr. Paget Toynbee's index of proper 
names in the prose works and canzoniere of Dante. 
This index is an abridgment of that just prepared 
by Mr. Toynbee for Dr. Moore's edition of the whole 
text of Dante, and it is something more, for it gives 
not only references but catch-words and phrases as 
well. The secretary, Mr. A. R. Marsh, announces 
the subjects for the Dante prize of one hundred 
dollars, to be competed for this year. He also ap- 
peals to Dantophilists everywhere to associate them- 
selves with the work of the Society, and thus make 
possible the publication of some important projected 
works. The annual fee is only five dollars, and 
certainly there ought to be found in this country 
many more students of Dante than the sixty now 
reported as members. The society has nearly pre- 
pared the materials for a concordance to the lesser 
Italian works, similar in plan to Dr. Fay's con- 
cordance to the "Commedia." A concordance to 
the Latin works is also projected. Other sugges- 
tions are : " The systematic publication, with En- 
glish translations, of the vision - literature of the 
Middle Ages ; the publication of extracts from the 
works of the Schoolmen and of the Chroniclers; 
and a revision of Blanc's 'Vocabolario Dantesco.'" 



90 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



Child-life 
in Art. 



An extremely pretty and well-con- 
ceived little volume, that unfortu- 
nately came too late for inclusion in 
our Holiday notices, is Miss Estelle M. Kuril's 
"Child-Life in Art" (Knight). It has as its picto- 
rial feature twenty-five full-page plates ( one or two 
of which are slightly marred in the printing) after 
some twenty artists, ranging from Raphael to Mr. 
J. G. Brown which is certainly a pretty far cry. 
Among the best plates are "The Sistine Madonna," 
Reynolds's " The Strawberry Girl," Van Dyck's 
" Mary Stuart and William III.," Gainsborough's 
"Rustic Children," a "Child's Head" by Bou- 
guereau, Greuze's "La Cruche Casse'e," and "The 
Meeting " by Marie Bashkirtseff. Velasquez, Bel- 
lini, Murillo, Lippo Lippi, and others, are also rep- 
resented. The text is intelligently and pleasantly 
written, the author showing some knowledge of and 
much feeling for her theme. We venture to say 
that this daintily-bound and well-printed little work, 
though late in appearing, did not fail to find favor 
as a Christmas book; and it is by no means one of 
the ephemeral sort. 

The Dean of Rochester, being called 

JSSSSL u p n at . the same time for more 

" Memories " and for a series of pub- 
lic lectures in the United States, concluded that he 
might kill two birds with a single stone, and so pre- 
pared a series of reminiscential chapters to be spoken 
and printed at the same time. For some weeks past 
he has been charming audiences in our large cities 
with his presence, while those unable to hear him 
may still read what he has to say in the newly pub- 
lished "More Memories" (Macmillan), "being 
thoughts about England spoken in America." Dean 
Hole is as richly anecdotal in this volume as in its 
predecessor of two years since, and the pages have 
the same unpretentious and genial charm. They 
are upon all sorts of subjects : bores, preachers, 
roses, the drama, Sunday observance, working-men, 
and English sports. These are but a few of the 
many themes touched upon. 



BRIEFER MENTION. 

Professor Herbert Weir Smyth's monumental work 
on " The Sounds and Inflections of the Greek Dialects " 
(Macmillan), published by the Oxford Clarendon Press, 
takes up the task set aside by Ahrens half a century 
ago, and now does for the Ionic dialect even more than 
was done for the Doric and Aiolic dialects by the earlier 
scholar. We understand that the present volume, itself 
the fruit of many years' labor, is but the first instal- 
ment of a work destined eventually to embrace the other 
Greek dialects also, and to supplement Ahrens in his 
own field by means of the added results of nineteenth- 
century investigation. 

A Collection of Wild Flowers of California " is pub- 
lished (if we may use the word in this connection) by 
the Popular Bookstore of San Francisco. Miss E. C. 
Alexander has pressed and mounted the flowers, which 
include eight species, and which have kept their color 



better than is usual with herbarian specimens. A num- 
ber of sonnets and other verses have been written for 
the collection by Miss Ina D. Coolbrith and Miss Grace 
Hibbard, so that we may really call it a book, after all, 
and a very pretty book at that. 

Mr. Joseph Knight is both compiler and publisher of 
an anthology that no user of tobacco, if he have literary 
tastes at all, will want to do without. It is called " Pipe 
and Pouch," and its contents are so happily selected as 
to justify its further title of " The Smoker's Own Book 
of Poetry." All the good things, anonymous or acknowl- 
edged, are here preserved for us, Mr. Aldrich's " La- 
takia" and Lowell's numerous poems on the subject, 
Lamb's " Farewell " and Calverley's " Ode." The vol- 
ume is very prettily printed and bound. 

Mrs. Oliphant's two-volume work on " The Victorian 
Age of English Literature " (Lovell, Coryell & Co.) 
appears in a new edition, with a series of not very judi- 
ciously selected portraits. It is of course in no sense 
a critical or an authoritative treatment of the subject, nor 
is it likely to be taken for such. A careful examina- 
tion would doubtless reveal an appalling number of in- 
accuracies, and the most casual reader will come upon 
judgments so inept as to call forth a smile. But, if we 
do not take the book too seriously, it will be found read- 
able, and even helpful as a means of passing under 
rapid survey the various groups of Victorian writers. 

Professor Henry Craik's " Life of Jonathan Swift " 
was published nearly twelve years ago in a single large 
volume, and became at once the standard authority upon 
its subject. It now reappears in much more convenient 
shape, forming two volumes of the charming " Eversley " 
edition (Macmillau), and adorned with two portraits. 
The text is practically the same as before, the author 
having seen no reason to alter his opinions on the life 
of Swift, or his conception of the character and work of 
the great satirist. 

Bound up with the twelfth " General Catalogue of 
Columbia College " (New York) there is a facsimile 
reproduction of the first. It was a single broadside 
sheet of modest dimensions, printed in 1774, and giv- 
ing the names of all graduates for the sixteen years that 
the institution had then been in existence. The cata- 
logue now published is a volume of 620 pages, and is 
devoted solely to giving the names, dates, and ad- 
dresses (for those still living) of all the persons that 
have ever been connected with Columbia College, either 
as officers or students. " Great oaks from little acorns 
grow " is a homely proverb that does not often have a 
better illustration than this stout volume. The com- 
pilation has been made by Professor J. H. Van Am- 
ringe and Mr. John B. Pine. Its most distinctive fea- 
ture as contrasted with earlier issues is a "Locality 
Index," which groups the living graduates by states and 
cities, and ought to promote the establishment of many 
new alumni organizations. 

Two new parts of the " New English Dictionary " 
(Macmillan) begin, respectively, the letters D and F. 
(E has already been published entire.) D, which with 
E, will form the third volume of the great work, is 
edited by Dr. Murray; while F, beginning volume four, 
has been undertaken by Mr. Henry Bradley, who was 
responsible for E also. F, G, and H will be brought 
within the fourth volume. The two letters now started 
will be continued in quarterly sections, without interrup- 
tion. The parts now issued run from D to Deceit, and 
from F to Fang, respectively. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



91 



YORK TOPICS. 



New York, January 26, 1895. 

The continuation of the American Copyright League 
as a permanent organization for the maintenance and 
improvement of the law enacted in 1891 has been abund- 
antly justified by recent events. It was thought by 
some members that with the passage of the bill estab- 
lishing international copyright the League's usefulness 
was at an end. The League has remained quiescent for 
four years, and has discouraged many well-meant move- 
ments to improve the law, in order that the latter might 
be thoroughly tested and that the principle of interna- 
tional copyright might be firmly established in the minds 
of the people. The so-called Hicks bill, by which it 
was proposed to remove copyright protection from en- 
gravings and etchings unless made in this country, re- 
quired immediate attention, however; and the power of 
the League and its affiliated societies has been shown 
by the promptness with which the bill has been de- 
feated by the active efforts of the League, under the 
able leadership of Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson, its 
secretary. By the same token, the new Covert bill, to 
prevent excessive damages in cases where newspapers 
have infringed the copyright law, has very properly re- 
ceived the support of the League, and will no doubt be 
passed. Instead of a separate fine for each issue of a 
journal containing the pirated matter, the penalty is 
limited to double the market value of the copyright in- 
fringed upon. 

In deference to the wishes of the League, the Amer- 
ican Authors' Guild has postponed the recommendation 
of certain changes in the copyright law until a more 
propitious season. The Guild will perform a real ser- 
vice to all who earn their living by writing, if it is suc- 
cessful in its efforts to have authors' manuscripts rated 
as printed matter by the postmaster-general. Mr. Bis- 
sell has practically promised that this shall be done. 

The first of the " Atlantic Monthly " series of articles 
on " New Figures in Literature and Art " is from the 
pen of Mr. Royal Cortissoz, art-critic of the New York 
" Tribune," and has for its subject the work of Daniel 
Chester French. Mr. Cortissoz has also prepared for 
the March " Harper's " a paper which is a plea for " An 
American Academy at Rome," in which he will ques- 
tion the final authority of France in art, and will advo- 
cate the training of painters of all schools amid Italian 
traditions. Mr. Cortissoz is without question the most 
promising of our younger writers on art, having devoted 
himself almost exclusively to its study. His latest pa- 
per is probably the outcome of a pilgrimage made last 
summer through the principal art-centres of Europe, 
one of several that he has made. His criticisms of the 
decorations and art exhibits of the Columbian Exposi- 
tion are remembered here as among the most thorough 
and incisive which appeared. 

The preface of Professor Moses Coit Tyler's " Three 
Men of Letters " would seem to indicate that with the 
completion of his " Literary History of the American 
Revolution," soon to be sent to the press, his labors as 
an historian of American literature will be at an end. 
The present volume contains monographs upon Bishop 
Berkeley, Timothy D wight, and Joel Barlow. The 
first of these, the author says, " was an incidental pro- 
duct of the researches I made some years ago when 
working upon my ' History of American Literature 
During the Colonial Time,' but could not properly be 
included in that work." "The last two monographs 



were prepared for 'The Literary History of the Amer- 
ican Revolution,'" Professor Tyler continues, "but as 
the chief activity of the two writers thus dealt with 
belongs to the period immediately after the Revolu- 
tion, I have deemed it best to exclude them from 
that work." It is thus clear that the literature of the 
Republic will not be taken up by this author. His his- 
tories of Colonial and Revolutionary literature are not 
likely to be superseded, and, with Professor Richard- 
son's " History of American Literature," form a com- 
plete and satisfactory survey of our literary past. Mr. 
George Haven Pntnam, whose firm publishes all of these 
works, and who has himself turned author, has been 
lecturing the past week at Bowdoin College on the his- 
tory of publishing during the Middle Ages. Among 
the announcements of Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons for 
the present year are new editions of " Mr. Midshipman 
Easy," by Marryat, illustrated by representative Am- 
erican artists ; " At Odds," by Baroness Tautphoeus ; 
and " Richelieu " and " Agincourt," by G. P. R. James, 
in their " Famous Novel Series." 

Mr. Rossiter Johnson, the veteran editor and author, 
is busily engaged upon the current volume of Apple- 
tons' " Annual Cyclopaedia," which has been rightly 
called " a history of the world for one year." A more 
than usually large number of distinguished people 
passed away in 1894, and special effort has been made 
to secure capable biographers. The biography of Rob- 
ert Louis Stevenson will be written by Mr. Edward L. 
Burlingame, editor of " Scribner's Magazine," a close 
personal friend of the dead romancer. Mr. Johnson 
has also been occupied for some time in seeing through 
the press his " Camp-fire and Battle-field, an Illustrated 
History of the Great Civil War," which will be pub- 
lished next week by Messrs. Bryan, Taylor & Co., of 
this city. The work will contain special contributions 
by eminent participants on both sides, with more than 
a thousand illustrations, many of them from photo- 
graphs belonging to the War Department, now engraved 
for the first time. The advance sale of this work, by 
subscription, has been unexpectedly large. 

The fourth volume of Professor John Bach McMas- 
ter's " History of the People of the United States " will 
soon be issued by the Messrs. Appleton. It takes up 
the story of the second war for independence, and the 
succeeding period. The volume has much to do with 
the economic history of our country at that time, and 
deals with the business depression and hard times which 
were the causes of the enormous exodus of seaboard 
residents to the Valley of the Mississippi. An interest- 
ing chapter is devoted to early American magazines 
and periodicals. 

Still another author has passed through the English 
Bankruptcy Court under discreditable circumstances, 
and, judging by recent experiences, it would not be sur- 
prising were he to come here and deliver literary lec- 
tures, which seems to be the last resort in such cases. 
The advent of a French writer of salacious stories was 
loudly heralded not long since; but a stinging editorial 
by Mr. Arthur Brisbane, in one of our daily newspapers, 
calling upon all good people to shun him and his lec- 
tures, has had the effect of keeping him away, for it is 

now announced that " M. is not coming, and never 

intended to come, to New York." 

Of quite another sort is the witty, whole-souled French- 
man, " Max O'Rell," now lecturing through the West. 
I have just heard that " Mark Twain's " article on 
" What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us," in the January 



92 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



" North American Review," will be answered by " Max 
O'Rell " in the March number. So I suppose there will 
be great fun, and the fur will fly. The Messrs. Harper 
have made a mystery of the new historical romance, 
" Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc," which will begin 
in the April number of their magazine. Judging by the 
title alone, the story should be by " Mark Twain," and 
I give the guess for what it is worth. Apropos of " Max 
O'Rell," the Cassell Publishing Co. has purchased the 
American rights of his last book, " John Bull & Co.," 
and the firm now publishes all of this author's works 
in this country. I understand that the American Pub- 
lishing Company, of Hartford, will hereafter publish all 
of " Mark Twain's " works, and that these books will 
be sold by subscription hereafter, as was formerly the 
case. 

A good deal of curiosity has been excited by a pointed 
reference in one of Whittier's letters, given in the re- 
cently published " Life and Letters," to " the best and 
ablest literary paper in the country." The apprehensive 
or incredulous editor of the Letters, Mr. Pickard, ap- 
pears to have felt called upon to suppress the name of 
the journal thus strongly characterized by Mr. Whit- 
tier, although his opinion on such a subject could hardly 
fail to be a matter of legitimate literary interest. How- 
ever, chance has thrown the original letter in my way, 
and the missing words may now be supplied: "THE 
DIAL." But I give the letter entire, having carefully 
copied it from Mr. Whittier's familiar handwriting: 
Hampton Falls, N. H., Aug. 19, '92. 

My dear Friend: I don 't believe that half of the nice things 
the papers are saying of thy little book reach thee. Here is 
a clipping from the Chicago " Dial," the best and ablest lit- 
erary paper in the country. With loving remembrance, from 
thy friend, JOHN G. WHITTIER. 

Thus it is seen that " the truth will out," in spite of 
hyper-cautious editors like Mr. Pickard. 

ARTHUR STEDMAN. 



IiITERARY NOTES. 



The Rev. H. Shaen Solly is writing a life of his late 
father-in-law, Professor Henry Morley. 

Moritz Carriere, author of " Die Kunst," and other 
works of philosophy and aesthetics, died at Munich a 
few days ago. 

Professor Augustus Chapman Merriam of Columbia 
College died at Athens on the 19th of January, at the 
age of fifty-one. He had been a member of the Co- 
lumbia faculty for more than a quarter of a century, 
and was, at the time of his death, away on leave of ab- 
sence for a year. 

The New York " Critic " for January 10 is made 
peculiarly interesting by its account of the Stevenson 
memorial meeting, as well as by other matter relating 
to the dead novelist. It also contains a noteworthy ar- 
ticle upon the second Congress of American Philolo- 
gists, held at Philadelphia during the holidays. 

With the appearance of the sixth and final volume of 
Dr. Skeat's Library Edition of Chaucer, the publishers, 
Messrs. Macmillan & Co., announce that a Supplement- 
ary Volume is in course of preparation by Professor 
Skeat, to be issued during the present year, containing 
the " Testament of Love " (in prose), and the chief 
poems which have at various times been attributed to 



Chaucer and published with his genuine works in old 
editions. The volume will be complete in itself, with 
an introduction, notes, and glossary; and will be uni- 
form with the Library Edition of Chaucer's Complete 
Works. 

Mr. David Christie Murray's talk at the Twentieth 
Century Club, on the evening of January 18, was re- 
ceived with much interest by the members of the Club. 
Taking for his subject " The Poet's Note-Book," Mr. 
Murray discoursed for about an hour and a half upon 
the essentials of poetic diction, with such tribute of en- 
thusiasm to Burns and other Scotsmen as their fellow- 
countrymen may always be counted upon to pay. 

The most serious literary loss of the month came on 
the eleventh, with the death of Dr. Thomas Gordon 
Hake, in his eighty-sixth year. He was one of the men 
of 1809, was educated at Christ's Hospital, studied 
medicine, travelled a good deal on the Continent, and 
finally settled down to practice in East Anglia. He 
was the intimate friend of Borrow and Rossetti, and 
published several volumes of poems " Valdarno," 
" Madeline," " New Symbols," " Parables and Plays," 
" Legends of To-morrow," " Maiden Ecstasy," and 
" The New Day." His Memoirs of Eighty Years " 
appeared in 1892, and a Civil List pension was granted 
him in 1893. 

Professor William Rufus Perkins, who died at Erie, 
Pa., on the 27th of January, was a man of rare char- 
acter and abilities, whose higher qualities were perhaps 
too little appreciated by the most of those who knew 
him. For some years before his death, he held the 
chair of History at the State University of Iowa, hav- 
ing gone there from Cornell University, where he was 
an assistant professor. He was the author of some val- 
uable historical papers, including an almost unique mon- 
ograph on the Iowa Trappists, based upon an exhaust- 
ive study of that singular and interesting community. 
He was also a reviewer of historical works for THE 
DIAL and other journals. But Professor Perkins's best 
work was as a poet. A shy and reticent man, it was known 
to but few of his friends that poetry was to him much 
more than the diversion of an idle hour that to it he 
gave his best powers and sought to express in it his real 
self. His poem of " Eleusis " has already been char- 
acterized in THE DIAL as one of the most remarkable 
and meritorious of the longer poems that have appeared 
in America in many years. The volume containing it 
(" Eleusis, and Lesser Poems ") was issued in 1892 ; it 
is not known that he is the author of any other books of 
verse. Professor Perkins was about forty-five years of 
age, and unmarried. 

Messrs. Ward, Lock, & Bowden, New York, are the 
agents in this country for " The Windsor Magazine," a 
new English monthly of the popular sort. It is more like 
" The Strand Magazine" than any other of its competitors, 
and sells at twenty cents a copy We note with grat- 
ification the re-appearance of " The Southern Magazine," 
whose untimely demise was chronicled a few weeks ago. 
It begins again with the January issue, under a new 
management. Of great importance also is the resump- 
tion of that very valuable weekly, " Science," under the 
auspices of an editorial committee comprising the most 
distinguished specialists in the country. The paper has 
gone back to the typographical features of the earlier 
volumes, and once more presents an exceedingly attract- 
ive appearance A most creditable addition to the sci- 
entific periodicals issued by the University of Chicago 
is " The Astrophysical Journal," which succeeds the old 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



93 



" Astronomy and Astro-Physics," and which is now ed- 
ited by Professors George E. Hale and James E. Keeler, 
with the collaboration of a large number of American 
and European physicists and astronomers. From Los 
Angeles, Cal., comes " The Land of Sunshine," an illus- 
trated monthly whose bright and winning appearance 
does not belie its name. Its literary quality too is good. 
Under the editorial guidance of Mr. Charles F. Lum- 
mis, an experienced and favorably known literary worker, 
with the assistance of Mr. Charles D. Willard and 
other ready contributors, the periodical should not make 
its appeal in vain either to Californians or to more 

Eastern readers The first number of the American 

edition of " The Bookman," already noted in these col- 
umns, is expected to appear in February We may 

close this note upon the new periodicals of the year by 
mention of " The Metaphysical Magazine," a monthly 
devoted to Occultism. 



TOPICS isr LEADING PERIODICALS. 

February, 1895 (First List). 

Bad Taste, The Pleasures of. Annie S. Winston. Lippincott. 
California, The Mountains of. Alice Morse Earle. Dial. 
Civil Service Reform at Present. Theo. Roosevelt. Atlantic. 
College Preparation, Uniform Standards in. Educational Rev. 
Colorado's Experiment with Populism. J. F. Vaile. Forum. 
Corpus Christ! in Seville. Caroline E. White. Lippincott. 
Dialect, The Use and Abuse of. Dial. 
Diamond-Back Terrapin, The. D. B. Fitzgerald. Lippincott. 
Drama, Technique of the. J. S. Nollen. Dial. 
East, Alfred, R. I. Walter Armstrong. Magazine of Art. 
Electric Action. Modern Theories of. H. S. Carhart. Dial. 
Emin Pasha, The Death of. R. Dorsey Mohun. Century. 
Farmer, The Fate of the. F. P. Powers. Lippincott. 
Forestry Question, The. E. A. Bowers and others. Century. 
French Fighters in Africa. Poultney Bigelow. Harper. 
Froude, James Anthony. Augustine Birrell. Scribner. 
Froude's Erasmus. C. A. L. Richards. Dial. 
Gambling. John Bigelow. Harper. 

German Socialism, Program of . Wilhelm Liebknecht. Forum. 
Giants and Giantism. Charles L. Dana. Scribner. 
Glasgow, Art in. Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Harper. 
Goff 's Etchings. Frederick Wedmore. Magazine of Art. 
Gold, Why Exported? Alfred S. Heidelbach. Forum. 
Government Banking. Wm. C. Cornwell. Forum. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Mrs. James T. Fields. Century. 
Kindergartens and the Elementary School. Educafl Rev. 
Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief. A. K. McClure. McClure. 
Lincoln, Chase, and Grant. Noah Brooks. Century. 
Lingo in Literature. William C. Elam. Lippincott. 
Mob, A Study of the. Boris Sidis. Atlantic. 
Music in America. Antonfn Dvorak. Harper. 
Napoleon, The Wax Cast of the Face of. McClure. 
Negro in Fiction, The Future of the. Dial. 
Nervous System, Education of the. H.H.Donaldson. Ed. Rev. 
New York Colonial Privateers. T. A. Janvier. Harper. 
New York, People in. Mrs. Schnyler Van Rensselaer. Century. 
Perugia. Mrs. Frank W. W. Topham. Magazine of Art. 
Philosophic Renascence in America. John Dewey. Dial. 
Physical Training in Public Schools. M. V. O'Shea. Atlantic. 
Poetry, Recent American. William Morton Payne. Dial. 
Railroads, Government Control of. C. D. Wright. Forum. 
Russia as a Civilizing Force in Asia. Atlantic. 
Secondary Education, Values in. W.B.Jacobs. Educat'l Rev. 
Social Discontent. Henry Holt. Forum. 
Speech-Reading. Mrs. Alexander G. Bell. Atlantic. 
Stevenson in the South Sea. Wm. Churchill. McClure. 
Stevenson, Robert Louis. S. R. Crockett. McClure. 
Thaxter, Celia. Annie Fields. Atlantic. 
Vedder, Elihu, Recent Work of. W. C. Brownell. Scribner. 
Weapons, New, of the U. S. Army. V. L. Mason. Century. 
Whigs, Passing of the. Noah Brooks. Scribner. 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS. 



[ The following list, containing 81 titles, includes books re- 
ceived by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

HISTORY. 

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages. By 
Ferdinand Gregorovius ; trans, from the 4th German edi- 
tion, by Annie Hamilton. In 2 vols., 12mo, uncut. Mac- 
millan & Co. $3.75. 

Henry the Navigator and the Age of Discovery in Europe. 
By C. Raymond Beazley, M. A. Illus., 12mo, pp. 336. 
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Si. 50. 

The International Beginnings of the Congo Free State. 
By Jesse Siddall Reeves, Ph.D. 8vo, uncut, pp. 106. 
Johns Hopkins University Studies. 50 cts. 

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS. 

The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution 
with Some Account of the Attitude of France Toward 
the War of Independence. By Charlemagne Tower, Jr., 
LL. D. In 2 vols., illus., 8vo, gilt tops, uncut. J. B. Lip- 
pincott Co. Boxed, $8. 

The Life and Adventures of George Augustus Sala. 
Written by Himself. In 2 vols., with portrait, 8vo, gilt 
tops. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $5. 

Odd Bits of History : Being Short Chapters Intended to 
Fill Some Blanks. By Henry W. Wolff. 8vo, uncut, pp. 
267. Longmans, Green, & Co. $2.75. 

A Strange Career : Life and Adventures of John Gladwyn 
Jebb. By his widow ; with introduction by H. Rider 
Haggard. With portrait, 12mo, pp. 349. Roberts Bros. 

4t1 91 
3P1.4D. 

Herbart and the Herbartians. By Charles De Garmo, 
Ph.D. 12mo,pp. 268. Scribner's " Great Educators." $1. 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 

Greek Studies : A Series of Essays. By Walter Pater ; pre- 
pared for the press by Charles L. Shadwell. 12mo, un- 
cut, pp. 319. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. 

The Growth of the Idylls of the King. By Richard Jones, 
Ph. D. 12mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 161. J. B. Lippincott 
Co. $1.50. 

Spenser's Faerie Queene (Book L, Cantos V. VIII.) 
Edited by Thomas J. Wise. Part II.: illus. by Walter 
Crane. 4to, uncut, pp. 76. Macmillan & Co. $3. 

The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited by 
the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt. D. Vol. VI., Introduc- 
tion, Glossary, and Indexes ; 8vo, uncut, pp. 445. Mac- 
millan & Co. $4. 

Poets on Poets. Edited by Mrs. Richard Strachey. 16mo, 
gilt top, uncut, pp. 324. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $2. 

Rhetoric: Its Theory and Practice. By Austin Phelps, 
D.D., and Henry Allyn Frink, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 317. 
Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1.25. 

Vistas. By William Sharp. 16mo, gilt top, pp. 182. Stone 
& Kimball's " Green Tree Library." $1.25. 

Shakuntala; or, The Recovered Ring : A Hindoo Drama by 
Kalidasa. Trans, from the Sanskrit by A. Hialmar Ed- 
gren, Ph.D. 16mo, gilt top, pp. 198. Henry Holt & Co. 
$1.50. 

Ben Jonson. Vol. II., with portrait, uncut, pp. 442. Scrib- 
ner's " Best Plays of the Old Dramatists." $1.25. 

The Plays of Maurice Maeterlinck. Translated by Rich- 
ard Hovey. 16mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 369. Stone & 
Kimball's " Green Tree Library." $1.25. 

Ideals and Institutions : Their Parallel Development. By 
John Ernest Merrill, B.A. 8vo, uncut, pp. 175. Hart- 
ford, Conn.: Seminary Press. $1. 

The Temple Shakespeare new vols.: King John, and A 
Winter's Tale. Each with preface, glossary, etc., by 
Israel Gollancz, M.A. 18mo, gilt tops, uncut. Macmil- 
lan & Co. Each, 45 cts. 

POETRY. 

Ballads and Songs. By John Davidson. 16mo, uncut, pp. 
131. Copeland & Day. $1.50. 

Poems. By John B. Tabb. 18mo, uncut, pp. 172. Cope- 
land & Day. $1. 

Poems of William Haines Lytle. Edited, with Memoir, 
by William H. Venable. With portrait, 12mo, gilt top, 
uncut, pp. 146. Robt. Clarke Co. $1.25. 



94 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



In Sheltered Ways. By D. J. Donahoe, author of " Idyls 

of Israel." 18mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 72. Buffalo : C. W. 

Moult on. $1. 

FICTION. 
The Ralstons. By F. Marion Crawford, author of "Kath- 

erine Lauderdale." In 2 vols., 12mo. Macmillan & Co. 

Boxed, $2. 
The Melancholy of Stephen Allard: A Private Diary. 

Edited by Garnet Smith. 12mo, uncut, pp. 305. Mac- 
millan & Co. $1.75. 
Vernon's Aunt: Being the Oriental Experiences of Miss 

Lavinia Moffat. By Mrs. Everard Cotes (Sara Jeanette 

Duncan). Illus., 12mo, pp. 162. D. Appleton & Co. $1.25. 
The Literary Shop and Other Tales. By James L. Ford, 

author of " Hypnotic Tales." 12mo, uncut, pp. 298. New 

York : Geo. H. Richmond & Co. $1.25. 
Slum Stories of London. By Henry W. Nevinson. With 

frontispiece, 18mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 238. Henry Holt 

&Co. 75cts. 
Shylock's Daughter. By Margaret Holmes Bates. Illus., 

12mo, pp. 146. Chicago : C. H. Kerr & Co. 75 cts. 

NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES. 

Neely's Library of Choice Literature: A Daughter of 
Judas, by Richard Henry Savage ; 12mo, pp. 304. Cam- 
paigns of Curiosity, by Elizabeth L. Banks ; illus., 12mo, 
pp. 208. Each, 50 cts. 

Lippincott's Select Novels : In Market Overt, by James 
Payn ; 12mo, pp. 302, 50 cts. 

Rand, McNally's Globe Library: Martin Hewitt, Investi- 
gator, by Arthur Morrison ; 12mo, pp. 264, 25 cts. 

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION. 

Venezia. By Henry Perl ; adapted from the German by Mrs. 
Arthur Bell (N. D'Anvers); with introduction by H. D. 
Traill, D.C.L. With 210 illustrations from original draw- 
ings ; 4to, gilt edges, pp. 248. Chas. Scribner's Sons. 
$12.50. 

Corea; or, Cho-sen, the Land of the Morning Calm. By A. 
Henry Savage-Landor, author of " Alone with the Hairy 
Ainee." Illus., large 8vo, pp. 304, uncut. Macmillan & 
Co. $4.50. 

St. Andrews and Elsewhere : Glimpses of Some Gone and 
of Things Left. By the author of " Twenty-five Years of 
St. Andrews." 8vo, uncut, pp. 384. Longmans, Green, 
& Co. $4. 

The Book of the Pair. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Parts 
17, 18, and 19 ; illus., 4to. The Bancroft Co. Each, $1. 

On the Shores of an Inland Sea. By James Teackle Den- 
nis. Illus., 12mo, pp. 79. Press of J. B. Lippincott Co. 
75 cts. 

Eight Days Out. By M. A. Illus., 12mo, pp. 157. Chicago : 
C. H. Kerr & Co. $1. 

AET AND MUSIC. 

Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture : A Series of Essays on 
the History of Art. By Adolf Furtwangler ; edited by 
Eugenie Sellers. With 19 photogravure plates and 200 
text illustrations ; 4to, uncut, pp. 487. Chas. Scribner's 
Sons. $15. 

Rhythm and Harmony in Poetry and Music, together with 
an essay on Music as a Representive Art. By George 
Lansing Raymond, L.H.D., author of " Art in Theory." 
8vo, pp. 344. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.75. 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES. 
Socialism. By Robert Flint. 8vo, uncut, pp. 512. J. B. 

Lippincott Co. $3.25. 
Municipal Government in Great Britain. By Albert 

Shaw. 8vo, gilt top, pp. 385. The Century Co. $2. 
Law in a Free State. By Wordsworth Donisthorpe, author 

of " Individualism a System of Politics." 12mo, pp. 312, 

uncut. Macmillan & Co. $2. 
The American Commonwealth. By James Bryce, author 

of "The Holy Roman Empire." In 2 vols., 3d edition, 

revised and enlarged ; 12mo, gilt tops. Macmillan & 

Co. $4. 

American Charities : A Study in Philanthropy and Eco- 
nomics. By Amos G. Warner, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 430. 

T. Y. Crowell & Co. $1.75. 
English Industrial History. By W. Cunningham, D.D., 

and Ellen A. McArthur. 12mo, pp. 274. Macmillan & 

Co. $1.50. 
The Wealth of Labor. By Frank Loomis Palmer. 12mo, 

pp. 219. Baker & Taylor Co. $1. 



PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS. 

Logic. By Dr. Christopher Sigwart. Second edition, re- 
vised and enlarged, translated by Helen Dendy. 2 vols., 
large 8vo, uncut. Macmillan & Co. $5.50. 

Philosophy of Mind: An Essay in the Metaphysics of Psy- 
chology. By George Trumbull Ladd. 8vo, pp. 414. 
Chas. Scribner's Sons. $3. 

The Elements of Ethics. By James H. Hyslop, Ph.D., au- 
thor of " The Elements of Logic." 12mo, pp. 470. Chas. 
Scribner's Sons. $2.50. 

Institutional Ethics. By Marietta Kies, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 
270. Allyn & Bacon. $1.25. 

THEOLOGY AND RELIGION. 

The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the 
Era of M4iji. By William Elliot Griffis, D. D., author of 
"The Mikado's Empire." 12mo, pp. 457. Chas. Scrib- 
ner's Sons. $2. 

Life Here and Hereafter. By Malcolm MacColl, M. A. 
12mo, pp. 405, uncut. Longmans, Green, & Co. $2.25. 

Three Sermons, together with Selections and Letters. By 
David Swing. With portrait, 12mo, pp. 79. Chicago : 
Privately Printed. 75 cts. 

If Jesus Came to Boston. By Edward E. Hale. 12mo t 
pp. 45. Boston : J. Stillman Smith & Co. 25 cts. 

SCIENCE AND NATURE. 

Popular Scientific Lectures. By Ernst Mach ; trans, by 
Thomas J. McCormack. 12mo, gilt top, pp. 313. Open 
Court Pub'g Co. $1. 

The Origin of Language, and The Logos Theory. By 
Ludwig Noire". 12mo, pp. 57. Open Court Co.'s " Re- 
ligion of Science Library. 15 cts. 

REFERENCE. 

A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities in Mythology, Re- 
ligion, Literature, and Art. From the German of Dr. 
Oskar Seyffert; revised and edited by Henry Nettleship, 
M. A., and J. E. Sandys, Litt. D. Illus., large 8vo, pp. 
716. Macmillan & Co. $3. 

Columbian Lunar Annual for the Third Year of the Fifth 
American Century. 8vo, pp. 128. Boston : The Poet- 
Lore Co. 25 cts. 

EDUCATION BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND 
COLLEGE. 

The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School Sys- 
tem : A Historical Sketch. By George H. Martin, A.M. 
12mo, pp. 284. Appletons' "International Education 
Series." $1.50. 

Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism. By 
Silvanus P. Thompson, D.Sc. New edition, revised ; 
illus., 12mo, pp. 628. Macmillan & Co. $1.40. 

College Requirements in English : Entrance Examina- 
tions. By Rev. Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. Second 
series. 12mo, pp. 102. Ginn & Co. $1.20. 

Orations and Arguments by English and American States- 
men. Edited, with notes, by Cornelius Beach Bradley. 
12mo, pp. 379. Allyn & Bacon. $1. 

A Scientific German Reader. By George Theodore Dip- 
pold, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 322. Ginn & Co. $1. 

Lessons in the New Geography, for Student and Teacher. 
By Spenser Trotter, M.D. Illus., 12mo, pp. 182. D. C. 
Heath & Co. $1. 

Les Historiens Prangais du XIXe Siecle. With notes by 
C. Fontaine, B.L. 12mo, pp. 384. W. R. Jenkins. $1.25. 

El Final de Norma. For Pedro A. de Alarcon ; with En- 

f"sh notes by R. D. de la Cortina, M.A. 12mo, pp. 297. 
. R. Jenkins's " Novelas Escogidas." 75 cts. 
La Conversation des Enfants. Par Chas. P. DuCroquet, 

author of " College Preparatory French Grammar." 

12mo, pp. 152. W. R. Jenkins. 75 cts. 
Le Petit Chose : Histoire d'un Enfant. Par Alphonse Dau- 

det ; with English notes by Prof. C. Fontaine, B.L. 12mo, 

pp.314. Jenkins's "Romans Choisis." 60 cts. 
L'Espurgatoire Seint Patriz of Marie de France. With 

introduction, etc., by Thomas A. Jenkins. 12mo, pp. 151. 

Philadelphia : Press of A. J. Ferris. 
Little Nature Studies for Little People, from the Essays 

of John Burroughs. Edited by Mary E. Burt. Illus., 

12mo, pp. 141. Ginn & Co. 36 cts. 
Fortezza. By Edmondo de Amicis ; with English notes by 

Professor T. E. Comba. 18mo, pp. 83. Jenkins's " Nou- 

velle Italiane." 35 cts. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



95 



Preliminary French Drill. By " Veteran." 12mo, pp. 68. 
W. R. Jenkins. 50 cts. 

El Pajaro Verde. Revised and annotated, for English Stu- 
dents, by Julio Rojas. 18mo, pp. 83. Jenkins's " Cuen- 
tos Selectos." 35 cts. 

L'Art d'Interesser en Classe. Par Victor F. Bernard. 
12mo, pp. 30. W. R. Jenkins. 30 cts. 

La Traduction Oracle et la Pronunciation Francaise : A 
Practical French Course. By Victor F. Bernard. 12mo, 
pp.42. W.R.Jenkins. 30 cts. 

The Book of Job. Revised version, edited by Samuel Mac- 
auley Jackson, D. D. 16rao, pp. 86. Maynard's "En- 
glish Classic Series." 24 cts. 

MISCELLANEO US. 

Wild Flowers of California. Pressed and arranged by- 
Miss E. C. Alexander ; with sonnets by Ina D. Coolbrith 
and Grace Hibbard. 12mo. San Francisco : The Popular 
Book Store. Boxed, $1.25. 

GOULD'S 

ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY 

OF 

Medicine, Biology, and Allied Sciences. 

A REFERENCE BOOK 

For Editors, General Scientists, Libraries, Newspaper 
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Demi Quarto, over 1600 pages, Half Morocco . . net, $10.00 

Half Russia, Thumb Index net, 12.00 

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96 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 1895. 



THE 

FEBRUARY ATLANTIC 

Contains the following articles: 

A Singular Life. IV.-VI. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 

The Subtle Art of Speech-Reading. Mrs. Alexander 
Graham Bell. 

A Voyage in the Dark. Rowland E. Robinson. 

The Life of Nancy. Sarah Orne Jewett. 

A Study of the Mob. Boris Sidis. 

Russia as a Civilizing Force in Asia. James Mas- 
carine Hubbard. 

A Village Stradivarius. In Two Parts. Part II. 
Kate Douglas Wiggin. 

The Champion of the Middle Ground. Edith M. 
Thomas. 

New Figures in Literature and Art. Royal Cortissoz 

" Come Down." A. M. Ewell. 

The Present Status of Civil Service Reform. The- 
odore Roosevelt. 

Physical Training in the Public Schools. M. V. 
O'Shea. 

Celia Thaxter. Annie Fields. 

Three English Novels. 

Recent Translations from the Classics. 

Comment on New Books. 

The Contributors' Club. 



$4.00 a Year ; 35 cents a Number. 

HOUQHTON, HIFFLIN & CO., Boston. 

CROWELLS LIBRARY 



OF 



ECONOMICS AND POLITICS. 



AMERICAN CHARITIES. 

A Study in Philanthropy and Economics. By AMOS G. WAR- 
NER, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Social Science in 
the Leland Stanford, Jr., University. ( Vol. IV. in Crowell's 
Library of Economics and Politics.) 12mo, cloth, $1.75. 
This work will be the first exhaustive treatment of the sub- 
ject. It is a careful presentation of theory and of practical 
experience, making it an indispensable handbook for all those 
who are theoretically and practically interested in charities. 

Volumes Previously Issued in this Series : 

Vol. I. The Independent Treasury System of 

the United States. $1.50. 
By DAVID KINLEY, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois. 

Vol. II. Repudiation of State Debts in the United 

States. $1.50. 

By WILLIAM A. SCOTT, Assistant Professor of Political 
Economy in the University of Wisconsin. 

Vol. HI. Socialism and Social Reform. $1.50. 
By RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Political 
Economy, and Director of the School of Economics, Polit- 
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OUR FIGHT WITH TAMMANY, BY DR. PARKHURST. 

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THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF G. A. SALA. 

Written by Himself. With Portrait. 2 vols., 8vo, $5.00. 

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experiences through a long and active career. His vocation carried him to the central point of interest in the great European events of the 
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By E. B. ANDREWS, D.D., LL.D., President of Brown University. 2 volp. With Map. 8vo, $4.00. 
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98 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.'S 
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1895.] 



THE DIAL 



99 



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NAPOLEON BONAPARTE'S FIRST CAMPAIGN. 

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8vo, 231 pages, with maps, $1.50. 

The author considers that this campaign in Italy, 179G-97, though 
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THE WONDERFUL WAPENTAKE. 

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This is a collection of twenty-five interesting sketches of English 
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PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 

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The previous translations of "Paul and Virginia" can lay but little 
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ENGLAND IN THE XlXth CENTURY. 

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100 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 1895. 



MACMILLAN AND Qrs NEW BOOKS. 



NEW WORK BY PROFESSOR BALDWIN, OF PRINCETON. 

Mental Development in the Child and the Race. 



Methods and Processes. By JAMES MARK BALDWIN, 

Princeton College. 

Dr. Paulsen's German Universities. 

Character and Historical Development of the 

Universities of Germany. 

By Professor F. PAULSEN. Translated by EDWARD DELAVAN 
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No. 208. FEBRUARY 16, 1895. Vol. XVIII. 



CONTENTS. 



READING AND EDUCATION 101 

COMMUNICATIONS 103 

College Standing in Iowa. J. H. T. Main. 

A Poet too little Known. Mary J. Reid. 

" Herr " Bjb'rnson. Albert E. Egge. 

Dialect in the United States. Alexander L. Bon- 

durant. 
An English Dialect Dictionary. Benj. Ide Wheeler. 

THE CONFESSIONS OF A JOURNALIST. E.G.J. 106 

LITERATURE AS A UNIVERSITY STUDY. Ed- 
ward E. Hale, Jr 109 

AN UNSUCCESSFUL HISTORY. A. C. McLaughlin 111 

SOME RECENT BOOKS ON EDUCATION. B. A. 

Hinsdale 113 

Alice Zimmern's Methods of Education in the United 
States. Mary Page's Graded Schools in the United 
States. Amy Bramwell's The Training of Teachers 
in the United States. Sara Burstall's The Education 
of Girls in the United States. Davidson's The Edu- 
cation of the Greek People. Martin's The Evolution 
of the Massachusetts Public School System. Howe's 
Systematic Science Teaching. 

SKEAT'S GREAT EDITION OF CHAUCER. 

Ewald Flugel 116 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 120 

Translation of a popular life of Napoleon. Biography 
of the Empress Euge'nie. France and the European 
revolution. Historical gossip of modern England. 
New handbooks of English literature. Introduction 
to English literature. A popular life of Lincoln. 
Commemorative addresses by Mr. Godwin. More 
pictures of colonial life. 

BRIEFER MENTION 123 

NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 124 

LITERARY NOTES 125 

TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 126 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 126 



READING AND EDUCATION. 

In these days of multiplied universities and 
degree)!, when a young man or woman of 
earnest purpose is rarely so handicapped by 
adverse environment as to be quite unable to 
get the higher education in the academic sense 
of that term, it is possible that we attach too 
much importance to the culture that is based 
purely upon scholastic titles. Historical ex- 
amples without end prove to us that culture 
of the finest type has been attainable out- 
side the walls of any institution of learning, 
and there is no reason to doubt that the pro- 
cess which has produced self-educated men in 
the past is equally available and effective at the 
present time. Indeed, it may be urged that 
the man intellectually self-made, if his achieve- 
ment show him to be really educated, has an 
advantage over the man who has found the 
ways of learning smoothed for him, the rough 
places levelled, and the natural impediments to 
progress cleared away by other hands than his 
own. It is he who best knows the value of 
what has been so hardly acquired ; his attain- 
ment has a substance and a solidity that the 
most brilliant of university careers may fail to 
give. After all, the test of culture, outside of 
narrow academic circles, is not based upon such 
external things as degrees and fellowships, but 
upon capacity, upon evidence of the finer issues 
of thought and feeling, and the power to quicken 
other spirits to those issues. 

Perhaps the most important of educational 
institutions is that which everyone may have 
at his door, or even within arm's reach a well 
filled set of book-shelves. Having this, we have, 
however socially isolated, the " means of get- 
ting to know, on all matters which most con- 
cern us, the best which has been thought and 
said in the world." One is almost ashamed to 
make so hackneyed a phrase do duty once more, 
but Matthew Arnold seized the root of the mat- 
ter, and if the thing needs to be repeated at all, 
it can hardly be done otherwise than in his 
words. Reading is a very serious affair, one 
of the most serious that there are, yet how few 
realize both in thought and act its educational 
possibilities. A man's library, assuming it to be 
for use and not for display, is a better index 
to his character than the most detailed of ex- 



102 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



ternal biographies. Show us the man at work 
in his library, and we view him in his essence, 
not in his seeming. There is no greater edu- 
cational problem than that of persuading men 
and women everywhere not merely the few 
favored by training and predisposition to 
surround themselves with books of the right 
sort, and to make the right use of them. Our 
popular educational movements, our C^autau- 
qua circles and University Extension courses, 
are all working in this direction, although 
rather aimlessly and with much misdirection 
of energy ; what we need is more persistent 
and systematic endeavor effort duly elastic 
and individual in adaptation while still system- 
atic on the part of all who are occupied with 
the diverse phases of the educational movement. 
Every teacher, every librarian, every popular 
lecturer, every writer for magazine or newspa- 
per, can do something for the common cause by 
way of influence ; every private individual, in 
his own circle of acquaintances, can at least do 
something by way of example. 

The average adult, whose intellectual en- 
vironment seems to be a matter of choice, is 
really subjected to influences that are not easy 
to resist. The modern newspaper, with its bad 
writing and its vulgar ideals, the popular mag- 
azine, with its ephemeral or sensational pro- 
gramme, the cheap book, even cheaper in its 
contents than in its mechanical execution 
these are the temptations that beset his" every 
spare hour, and deprive him of communion with 
the great spirits who stand ready to tell him 
" the best which has been thought and said in 
the world." " Will you go and gossip with 
your housemaid or your stable-boy, when you 
may talk with queens and kings ; or flatter 
yourself that it is with any worthy conscious- 
ness of your own claims to respect that you 
jostle with the hungry and common crowd 
for entree here, and audience there, while all 
the while this eternal court is open to you, 
with its society, wide as the world, multi- 
tudinous as its days, the chosen and the 
mighty of every place and time ? " None of 
us can altogether escape the distracting influ- 
ence of the commonplace writing that on every 
hand insinuates itself into our acquaintance ; 
yet if we content ourselves with such work, if 
we do not resolutely reject its impudent preten- 
sion of sufficiency, we miss the most effective 
means for the realization of our better selves. 
Every reader ought now and then to fortify 
himself against temptation by reading some 
such essay as Mr. Ruskin's on " Kings' Treas- 



uries," or Mr. Morley's on " The Study of Lit- 
erature," or Mr. Harrison's on " The Choice of 
Books "- not for their commendation of par- 
ticular lines of reading, or to blindly acquiesce 
in their individual dicta, but for their lofty 
standpoint, their liberal outlook, and their tonic 
effect. 

The foundations of the reading habit are, of 
course, laid in childhood ; and the responsi- 
bility for these foundations is one of the great- 
est that the professional educator has to bear. 
The child should be as carefully guided in the 
choice of his reading as the adult should be 
free to determine what is best for his own 
spiritual needs. How precious are the years 
from six to sixteen, with their eager receptivity 
and their retentive grasp, seems to be but im- 
perfectly understood by the directors of our 
schools. It is hardly less than criminal to pro- 
vide children of such an age with the namby- 
pamby artificial reading that is now manufac- 
tured for their use. A child's reading should 
be confined to the very best literature that he 
is capable of understanding and it is aston- 
ishing what he will understand if given a 
chance. Nor should he be kept upon short ra- 
tions for the purpose of drill in vocal expression. 
Fresh matter is always better than old for dis- 
cipline, and the most vitalizing pages lose their 
power for good if too frequently conned. The 
childish desire for new worlds to conquer is 
very strong, and is sure to find vent in the 
wrong direction if not freely indulged in the 
right one. 

The high school and college period of edu- 
cation is essentially that in which the student 
is trained to shift for himself. It is the period 
when restrictions upon reading must be relaxed, 
and freedom of choice watchfully encouraged. 
Somewhere within this period of intellectual 
adolescence there comes a transitional stage 
which tests all the training of the previous 
year. The duty of those who are responsible 
for the student during this critical period is 
rather to stimulate than to direct his reading ; 
to encourage him in looking beyond the horizon 
of his text-books, to make it easy and pleasant 
for him to read in helpful lines ; to throw all 
sorts of unobtrusive obstacles in his path, if he 
exhibits any tendency toward intellectual dissi- 
pation. The school or college library is, next 
to the wise instructor, an essential factor in 
this problem, and the studies of history and 
literature, of the ancient and modern languages, 
are those upon which reliance must mainly be 
placed in this task of making of formal educa- 



\V U 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



tion a real preparation for life. We have of 
late years witnessed a remarkable expansion in 
the scientific departments of school and col- 
lege, and a greatly increased expenditure for 
their adjuncts of laboratory and museum. The 
expansion was needed, and no educator can 
intelligently begrudge it. But the group of 
studies which find in the library both museum 
and laboratory the studies which we right- 
fully call humanities and for which we thereby 
claim the place -of first importance and of clos- 
est relationship to our deepest spiritual needs 
may fairly demand as much attention and 
as large an expenditure as the sciences of nature. 
It is not too much to ask that every dollar set 
apart for scientific apparatus shall be matched 
by another dollar set apart for literary appa- 
ratus. The student of history or of literature 
ought to have the use of his own set of books, 
just as the student of chemistry has the use of 
his own set of reagents. When the humanities 
come again into their own, this necessity will be 
recognized as fully as the necessity of labora- 
tory teaching in chemistry is now recognized. 
Given the right guidance in childhood, and 
the right influences during adolescence, the 
reading habit may be counted upon to remain 
a genuine educational influence through life. 
The importance of such guidance and such in- 
fluences can hardly be over-estimated. But for 
those who have missed them, for those who in 
the future will miss them, there is still the con- 
soling truth that serious aims coupled with 
earnest endeavor can nearly always find the 
path to a very complete culture. " The best 
which has been thought and said in the world," 
like the sunlight, shines freely for all, and to it 
the veriest mole may, if he will, grope his way. 
" Eeading maketh a full man," and more than 
that no scheme of formal education, however 
extensive, may accomplish. 



C OMMUNICA TIONS. 

COLLEGE STANDING IN IOWA. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

The college teachers of Iowa have been engaged in 
a discussion, since 1891, regarding "College Standing," 
which discussion, it seems to me, from the nature of 
some of the points involved has more than a local inter- 
est. The State has within its borders an unusually large 
number of " colleges " and " universities," even for a 
Western State, perhaps two score or more. At its 
session in 1891, the College Department of the State 
Teachers' Association determined to do what no other 
State had attempted namely, to define practically the 
term " College," and to exclude from membership those 




institutions not meeting the terms of the defini 
Consequently it was resolved that after 1893 no college 
should be eligible to membership " which should not 
require for admission to the freshman class three full 
years of work above the grammar grade, and four addi- 
tional years of collegiate work for the baccalaureate 
degree." A committee was appointed in 1892, to col- 
lect statistics on the following points : The number 
and variety of degrees conferred ; the requirements for 
the baccalaureate degrees; and, finally, data indicating 
the equipment of Iowa Colleges for doing the work 
required. 

The first report of this committee was made in 1893, 
and revealed a rather surprising state of affairs. Many 
institutions were doing preparatory work in the fresh- 
man year; the line of demarcation was in some cases 
not clearly drawn between the academy, which is usu- 
ally found in connection with the Western college, and 
the collegiate department proper; some were requiring 
their teachers to do both college and academy work; 
and some had less than six teachers to do the entire 
work of the institution. The committee assumed in 
their consideration of the case that the term " college " 
had something like a definite value, and that it should 
not be applied to all institutions indiscriminately, with- 
out protest. To determine what the standard should 
be, was a part of the work of the committee. This is 
interesting, as it is perhaps the first attempt made in 
this country, under similar circumstances, to determine 
what the term " college " should mean. The following 
are the tests applied: First, satisfactory and complete 
conditions of admission to freshman standing; second, 
correct organization of courses with sufficient force of 
instruction to create a college atmosphere; third, fac- 
ulty of instruction, consisting of at least eight chairs, 
as follows: (1) Psychology and Ethics (including in- 
struction in Philosophy and Logic), (2) Ancient Lan- 
guages, (3) Mathematics and Astronomy, (4) English 
Language and Literature, (5) Physics and Chemistry, 
(6) Modern Language, (7) History and Political Sci- 
ence, (8) The Biological Sciences. 

Judged by these criteria, there were three institutions 
in the State entitled to college standing. It was deemed 
undesirable, however, to exclude from the list some 
colleges doing work of a highly creditable character. 
Consequently there was recommended a " provisional 
minimum " of six chairs. In this provisional minimum, 
(4) and (7) of the foregoing list were classed together 
as " English and History," and in like manner (5) and 
(8) were united under the term " Natural Sciences." 
In this way the total number of colleges was increased 
to eight. The report was read, but action was post- 
poned for one year in order that corrections and additions 
might be made. 

At a recent meeting of the College Department of 
the State Teachers' Association (December 27) the 
report was taken up for final action. During the year 
every effort had been made to settle disputed points, 
and opportunity given to every institution to put itself 
in accord with the criteria proposed. Two institutions 
did this without trouble, making the total number ten. 
It was recommended that this number should be grouped 
together as " Class A," while those failing in the tests 
should be included in " Class B." The technical schools 
(which had not been considered at all by the committee) 
and the smaller colleges opposed the motion to adopt 
the report, with so much success that another postpone- 
ment for one year was secured. This postponement 



104 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 



seems to be chiefly in the interest of the technical schools, 
since coupled with the motion to postpone was the rec- 
ommendation to " reconsider the basis of classification." 
It is not likely that a vote on the report will ever be 
taken. The arbitrary settlement of a disputed point of 
this sort would be sure to meet with disfavor. The 
discussion, however, that has already been aroused has 
been of great value to the interests of higher education 
in the State. The stronger institutions have become 
somewhat more conscious of their deficiencies, while the 
weaker ones are making more earnest efforts than ever 
to reach a higher level. J H T MAIN 

Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa, Feb. 5, 1895. 



A POET TOO LITTLE KNOWN. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Your notice of the death of Professor William Ruf us 
Perkins, author of " Eleusis " and other remarkable 
poems, inspires me to add a word of tribute to a poet too 
little known, and likely to receive a wider appreciation, 
as often happens, after death. " Eleusis " is a not un- 
worthy sequel to Tennyson's " In Memoriam," the mod- 
ern philosophical companion of the " Rubaiyat " of Omar 
Khayyam. One may find in it many quatrains equal 
to the following terse description of that subtle enchant- 
ment which Rome still weaves about the souls of scholar- 
pilgrims: 

" I lay upon the Palatine 

When evening lit her changeless dome, 
And felt the mighty hand of Rome 
Enfold and clasp itself in mine." 

" Bellerophon " is another remarkable poem a new 
interpretation of the old Greek myth, not surpassed by 
any of Miss Edith M. Thomas's classical studies, such 
as " Lityerses and the Reapers " and " Atys." Here is 
a little description which has the same effect upon the 
mind as Mr. Elihu Vedder's lonely landscapes: 

" Behind me lies the broad Aleian plain, 
The loneliest plain that faces to the sky, 
Across which, groping with increasing pain, 
I course forever, for I cannot die. 
O heartless plain, and earless to my cry ! 
A thousand thousand are the paths I wear 
On thy broad back ; and Night, who does defy 
For most the spear of sorrow and of care, 

For me may bring no rest, but doubles up despair." 

Professor Perkins once wrote me: "I made up my 
mind when a boy that if I ever published anything in 
poetry, I would wait until I had made it perfect artistic- 
ally," and that saying is the keynote to his whole poet- 
ical work. 

A few brief details of the poet's life, sent by him at 
my request, and intended for use in another periodical, 
may be quoted here: 

" I was born in the year 1847, in Erie, Pennsylvania. 
I graduated in 1868 at Western Reserve College, Ohio, 
and was tutor in my Alma Mater for three years after 
graduation; then devoted myself to the reading of his- 
tory and law. In 1879 I was called to Cornell Uni- 
versity as Assistant Professor; after six years at Cornell 
I went to Europe, where I remained a year, attending 
the Universities of Berlin and Bonn, and travelling. 
Upon my return I was called to this chair [History, 
State University of Iowa]. In the spring of 1888, I 
was elected a delegate to the 8th Centenary of Bologna 
University in Italy. Going again to Europe, I attended 
this superb fete, and afterwards travelled in England 
and France, returning to the University of Iowa in the 



autumn. A first edition of ' Eleusis ' was issued in 1890 
without the ' Lesser Poems,' and was published anony- 
mously in accordance with the advice of several prom- 
inent men; but in 1892 it was published by Messrs. 
McClurg & Co. in its present form." 

Professor Perkins had planned a second volume of 
poems, and upon my asking him to make the pieces less 
threnodic in tone than those first published, he re- 
sponded, " No, I shall never publish anything quite so 
threnodic again if I can help it." In March last, un- 
der the gathering shadows of ill health, he wrote me: 
" As to the future volume, nothing can be said at pres- 
ent." His favorite poets were Schiller and Goethe, 
although Thackeray's and Shakespeare's works were 
often found in his hands. He disliked athletic exercise 
and detested walking, but enjoyed sea- voyages intensely. 
Books and rare old china attracted him, but he had no 
particular passion as a collector. Until his health failed, 
he was by no means of so melancholy a temperament 
as his poems might seem to indicate. His poetical range 
was limited; but what he achieved was full of promise 
for his future, and " Eleusis," " Bellerophon," and "Had- 
rian's Lament Over Antinous " are poems which the 
world ought not to let die. MARY j REID 

St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 4, 1895. 



"HERR" BJORNSON. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

In THE DIAL and elsewhere I frequently see the 
names of Bjornson and other Norwegian authors with the 
title " Herr " prefixed. This practice, which is common 
in America, is doubtless supposed to be in imitation of 
what is customary in the old country. As a rule, how- 
ever, the title " flerr " (nearly always written " Hr.") 
is not used in Norway before the names of distinguished 
men. Bjornson, Ibsen, Lie, Kielland, and the rest, are 
called so, or by their full names, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, 
Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, etc., but hardly ever Hr. 
Bjornson, etc., except of course when addressed or 
spoken of in their hearing. Why should we in speak- 
ing of Norwegian authors adopt a form of title almost 

unknown in their native country ? 

ALBERT E. EGGE. 
The University of Iowa, Feb. 9, 1895. 

[The titles by which gentlemen usually refer to 
one another are not given by THE DIAL to living 
writers " in imitation " of any actual or suppositi- 
tious practice in "the old country," but because of 
what we believe to be the requirements of good lit- 
erary manners. Among the many vulgarities fos- 
tered by our newspapers none is, in our opinion, 
more detestable than the habit of constantly refer- 
ring to people as Smith and Jones and Robinson, 
without the simple courtesy of a prefix. If the 
Scandinavian or other European practice derogates 
from this not very exacting standard, we must re- 
gret the fact without yielding the point. EDR. 
DIAL.] 

DIALECT IN THE UNITED STATES. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

The study of dialects in America, carrying with it an 
enumeration of the many interesting survivals in folk- 
speech, is still in its infancy, though much excellent work 
has already been done through the medium of the Dia- 
lect Society, and by Professors Kittredge and Sheldon of 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



105 



Harvard, Charles Forster Smith of the University of 
Wisconsin, Wyman of the University of Alabama (who 
has recently given the correct derivation of bayou), Dr. 
H. A. Shands of Texas, Dr. William Rice Sims of the 
State University of Mississippi, and others. 

The negro dialect, as spoken on the plantations in the 
South, is rich in survivals; and that a number of these 
are still found in England, is shown by some examples 
taken from " Lorna Doone " a well of English unde- 
filed. Note the following : axe for ask ; spunky meaning 
spirited or brave, used also by whites in the South; 
liefer as comparative of lief, meaning rather; gwain for 
going ; peart, meaning well (as " How is your old 
'oman ? " " She 's right peart ") ; clomb, preterite of 
climb (the negroes use more generally another form, 
clum). These words and expressions are all in common 
use among the negroes, and must have come to them 
from old England. They were jotted down while read- 
ing rapidly; a careful study of the book named would 
doubtless reveal many more. 

A friend, born in New Hampshire, tells me that his 
grandmother always spoke of a village of a hundred 
housen, holding to the old form of the plural (compare 
oxen, hosen, etc.). In " Lorna Doone " eyen is used as 
the plural of eye. 

Though the causative meaning of drench is recog- 
nized in the " Century" and " International " dictionaries, 
and still occurs in England (witness, " Dosed him with 
torture as you drench a horse " Browning's " Ring and 
Book," II., 75), upon the testimony of several careful 
students of language it is no longer used in this sense 
in New England. In the South the verb is used very 
generally in the causative sense ; a horse is drenched for 
colic i. e., his head is held up and he is caused forcibly 
to drink. 

The use of right (meaning very) and mighty, as ad- 
verbs, is general throughout the South, and the words 
are constantly in the mouths of those " to the manner 
born." The use of " mighty," characterized as colloquial 
in the great dictionaries, is met with in the North and 
West as well. 

In folk-speech we meet with the variants, to get shut, 
shet, or shed of, all meaning to get rid of, to relieve 
one's self of. An Ohio man tells me that he is only fa- 
miliar with "to get shut of"; and so says one from 
Connecticut. A North Carolinian has heard both shed 
and shut; while a South Carolinian whom I questioned 
was familiar only with shet. (See also Octave Thanet, 
" Peterson's Magazine," January, 1893). I have heard 
all three forms. Thomas Hardy, in " A Pair of Blue 
Eyes," uses still another form, " to get shot of." A 
shop-boy in " Neal's Sketches" says: "I want to get 
shut of you because I am going to shet the door." These 
two examples would indicate that this expression, too, 
came across the seas. The primitive idea seems to be 
riddance by means of shutting one out, for the forms 
shet and shot are used regularly by the negroes and are 
of common occurrence in the folk-speech of a large 
portion of this country, as " Shet that door." " The 
door is shot." The form shed, it seems, is probably a 
variation from shet; whereas if the other forms were 
not three to one we might conclude that the original 
idea was that of riddance by taking off, as a garment. 
A well-known Southern writer has a man of educa- 
tion a priest, in fact use unthoughtedly for thought- 
lessly; and though in this case the writer nodded, she 
was unconsciously revealing her knowledge of folk- 
speech. The great dictionaries are innocent of this 



word, but its use is widespread in the South, and it has 
a position by tolerance in the vocabulary of some read- 
ing people. ALEXANDER L. BONDURANT. 
State University of Mississippi, Feb. 5, 1895. 

AN ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Lexicography on the grand scale is the order of the 
day. Another thesaurus, this time in the form of an 
English Dialect Dictionary, is shortly to begin publica- 
tion. The materials which have been gradually collect- 
ing since the formation of the English Dialect Society 
in 1873 have now reached such dimensions, and made 
such reasonable approach toward completeness, that the 
work of preparing for publication the million and more 
slips now on hand has actually been commenced, under 
the editorial supervision of Dr. Joseph Wright, the 
Honorary Secretary of the society, assisted by Professor 
W. W. Skeat. In response to Dr. Wright's call for 
volunteers to cooperate in the work of completing the 
collections, some six hundred persons are now engaged 
in different parts of Great Britain in the organized work 
of excerpting from books and reducing dialectal glos- 
saries to the form of slips. It is the purpose of the 
editor to include in the dictionary all dialectal words or 
dialectal uses of words to be found within the entire do- 
main of the English speech of the eighteenth and nine- 
teenth centuries, i. e., all words or uses of words not 
recognized in the standard English of this period. The 
dictionary will give in every case its authority, and, if 
possible, will cite, after the manner of Murray's En- 
glish Dictionary, one or more passages illustrating the 
word and its use. Careful attention will also be paid 
to denning the habitat of the word ; and so far as pos- 
sible its history or etymology will also be determined. 
As it has been decided to include American English 
within the scope of the work, it becomes of great im- 
portance to the editors to secure immediate cooperation 
on this side of the Atlantic in the collection of material. 
As yet, the only reliance is the very uncertain and con- 
fused material of our various dictionaries of " Ameri- 
canisms," and the excellent though rather hap-hazard 
word-lists which have appeared in the different num- 
bers of the " Dialect Notes " published since 1890 by 
the American Dialect Society. It is evident how im- 
portant this new undertaking must prove for the study 
of American English; it is, indeed, only through this 
clearing-house of a universal English dialect dictionary 
that we can hope to reach a test for the genuineness of 
" Americanisms." All who may have material to con- 
tribute, or who may be willing to undertake assign- 
ment of books for reading, are requested to correspond 
with the editor, address, Professor Joseph Wright, 6 
Norham-road, Oxford, England ; or with Professor Eu- 
gene H. Babbitt, Columbia College, New York City, 
who will cooperate with the editor in securing and ar- 
ranging the American material. It is expected that a 
prospectus of the work, accompanied by specimen pages, 
will shortly be issued, and subscriptions will be solic- 
ited. The work will be furnished to subscribers at the 
rate of two numbers a year, with an annual subscription 
fee of 1. For non-subscribers the price of each num- 
ber will be 15s. Concerning the length of time likely 
to be absorbed in publication, and the consequent extent 
of the work, the editors give no assurance ; this, we are 
to presume, the material will dictate. 

BENJ. IDE WHEELER. 
Cornell University, Feb. 3, 1895. 



106 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



Ejje 



THE CONFESSIONS OF A JOURNALIST.* 



Tradition has it that when Dr. Johnson heard 
that James Boswell intended writing his life, 
he promptly proposed to prevent it by taking 
Boswell's. It does not seem to have occurred 
to the Doctor, in the alarm and flurry of the mo- 
ment, that, without resorting to manslaughter, 
he could forestall the impending Life and ren- 
der it comparatively stingless by writing one 
himself. This milder preventive against unde- 
sirable biographers has latterly grown much in 
favor. Every man his own Boswell, may fairly 
be called the biographical order of the day ; and 
the rule is not altogether a bad one. Every man 
is at least theoretically sure to deduct noth- 
ing from the tale of his own virtues ; and as 
experience shows that the list of his failings 
may safely be left to his friends (to say noth- 
ing of the press), the public is tolerably sure 
in the end of a complete picture with the due 
chiaroscuro effect. Now and then there emerges 
from the rank and file of autobiographers one 
candid enough to relieve his friends of their 
melancholy office ; and such a one, emphatic- 
ally, is Mr. George Augustus Sala. We have 
read Mr. Sala's " Life and Adventures " with 
the liveliest interest. Here at last is an auto- 
biographer who is not only frank, but who even 
appears at times, in the exuberance of his 
candor, to bear himself a grudge. It may be 
meanly urged that Mr. Sala, as an Old Jour- 
nalistic Hand, is unable from long habit to ab- 
stain from "racy" personalities and revelations, 
even at his own expense ; and that his frankness 
as to the follies and escapades of his youth rings 
more of an unrepentant Master Shallow than 
of a broken and a contrite heart. But the 
great fact of frankness remains ; and with it 
goes hand-in-hand the twin autobiographical 
virtue of modesty, for Mr. Sala, so far from 
being with monotonous regularity the hero of 
his own "Adventures," not seldom emerges con- 
spicuously at " the smaller end of the horn." 
When, for instance, he engages in a " row " in 
a disreputable quarter of London, it is he, and 
not the enemy, who "takes the floor " and is 
carried away for repairs. When he sets out 
(as he does twice) for Aix-la-Chapelle or Hom- 
burg with the cheerful intention of "breaking 
the bank," he returns, not laden with thalers 

* THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF G. A. SALA. Written 
by Himself. Two volumes, with Portrait. New York: 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 



and Friederichs d'Or, but minus his valuables 
and plus sundry unpleasant tokens of their de- 
tention by Herr Israel Hirsch, Herr Salomon 
Fuchs, Herr Benjamin Isaacstein, and other av- 
uncular friends of the Gentile in need. When, 
in 1884, with his literary and journalistic hon- 
ors thick upon him, he re-visits America and 
is presented in state to General Benjamin F. 
Butler, he is received by that hero, not with 
" distinguished courtesy," but with the stag- 
gering avowal, " If you had been in New Or- 
leans in 1864 I should most certainly have 
hanged you; yes, sir!" and, adds Mr. Sala, 
thoughtfully, " I thoroughly believe the Gen- 
eral would have been as good as his word." 
Not to multiply examples, we shall only add 
that Mr. Sala, after heaping on himself such 
actionable epithets as " slovenly, careless, ne'er- 
do-weel," " dissolute young loafer," " outra- 
geous Mohock," etc., caps the climax of self- 
immolation by pronouncing his own novel, " The 
Baddington Peerage," " almost the worst one 
ever perpetrated." In this instance, at least, 
he does not grossly exaggerate. 

Mr. Sala was born in 1828, at London, where 
his mother, widowed shortly after his birth, was 
a teacher of singing, and, later, an actress. 
Madam Sala had a distinguished clientele, and 
played at the leading theatres ; but, with five 
young children on her hands, she had no little 
trouble bringing the proverbial ends together. 
Twice a year, to eke out her income, she gave 
special concerts, one at London and the other 
at Brighton. For one of these occasions she 
had the temerity to engage, at great expense, 
not only Mme. Malibran, but Paganini the 
poor lady cherishing the hope that in the end 
one or perhaps both artistes would generously 
waive their pecuniary claims. The concert was 
a brilliant success ; and then came the ordeal 
of paying the bills. The lesser performers, as 
usual, smilingly refused to accept a shilling for 
their services. Not so the great Malibran. 
Says our author : 

" The renowned singer smiled, chucked me under the 
chin, patted me on the head, told me to be a good boy, 
and very calmly took the thirty-one pounds ten shill- 
ings which with trembling hands my mother placed upon 
the table." 

Thus depleted in purse and hopes, Madam Sala 
sought out Paganini. Of this celebrity, our 
author says : 

" I can see him now a lean, wan, gaunt man in black, 
with bushy hair something like Henri Rochefort, and 
more like Henry Irving. He looked at me long and earn- 
estly; and somehow, although he was about as weird a 
looking creature as could well be imagined, I did not feel 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



107 



afraid of him. In a few broken words my mother ex- 
plained her mission, and put down the fifty guineas on the 
table. When I say that he washed his hands in the gold 
that he scrabbled at it, as David of old did at the gate 
and grasped it and built it into little heaps, panting 
the while, I am not in any way exaggerating. He bun- 
dled it up at last in a blue cotton pocket-handkerchief 
with white spots and darted from the room. And we 
my poor mother convulsively clasping my hand went 
out on the landing and were about descending the stairs 
when the mighty violinist bolted again from the bed- 
room door. ' Take that, little boy,' he said, ' take that,' 
and he thrust a piece of paper, rolled up into a ball, into 
my hand. It was a bank-note for fifty pounds ! " 

Mr. Sala is not a university man, or even a 
public-school man. With a large fund of gen- 
eral knowledge, he has (like a greater man be- 
fore him) little Latin and less Greek judged 
by Porsonian standards ; nor has his lack of 
scholastic finish escaped the jibes of brother 
writers of double his learning and half his abil- 
ity. His formal schooling was meagre, com- 
prising a season at Paris and a twelvemonth at 
" Bolton House," Turnham Green, the latter 
a " Pestalozzian " establishment where the mak- 
ing of sapphics and alcaics was coupled with 
instruction in carpentry, joinery, gardening, 
and other practical branches, to the no small 
scandal of academic Dr. Blimbers. Among Mr. 
Sala's Paris school-fellows was the younger 
Dumas, then a shapely youth of sixteen, with 
" very light blue-grey eyes, and an abundance 
of very light auburn hair, which curled in a 
frizzled mass." Of Dumas, one story is pre- 
served : 

" Among the articles the use of which was for some 
absurd reason or other forbidden to us pensionnaires, 
was an opera-glass; and young Alexandre Dumas, who 
was once at the back of the pit, and who was naturally 
short-sighted, coolly produced such a forbidden object, 
and began to scan Frederick the Great and his page be- 
hind the foot-lights. The mutinous act was at once 
perceived and resented by the Prefect of Studies. A 
bas le lorgnon, M. Dumas ! a has le lorgnon ! ' he ex- 
claimed in wrathful tones. Unprophetical prefect ! 
Little could the pedant, unendowed with foresight, 
know that the lad who had violated the school regula- 
tions by using a lorgnon was destined to be the author 
of ' Le Demi-Monde ' and ' La Dame aux Came'lias.' " 

At fifteen, Mr. Sala found himself under the 
necessity of " facing the world," with little or 
nothing in the way of capital or marketable 
knowledge to forward the enterprise. After a 
short term with a miniature-painter, he tried in 
turn law-copying, scene-painting, translating, 
illustrating Penny Dreadfuls (" there must be 
more blood, Mr. Sala much more blood ! " 
was the great editorial requirement of this 
branch), engraving, scribbling, and what not, 
leading a rather " loaferish " life the while, and 



decidedly not one lying along the shores of a 
Pactolus. Dire at times were Mr. Sala's fiscal 
straits, and manifold his shifts to relieve them. 
We find him at one stage reduced to the hu- 
miliating point of smoking, and even dining, 
vicariously of walking behind smokers of fra- 
grant Havanas to catch an occasional whiff, 
and of staring in at club-windows, where stout 
gentlemen of stall-fed and port-winey aspect 
plied their knives and forks and glowered at 
the dinnerless outsider. At one of these sea- 
sons of gloom he tried to cobble his fortunes by 
pushing those of " The Shaking Quaker's Her- 
bal Pill," designing and engraving the hand- 
bills, etc., and even " taking several boxes of 
Shaking Quakers " himself to reassure a tim- 
orous public. 

Mr. Sala's formal entry into journalism was 
not auspicious. About 1850 he became editor 
and co-proprietor of " Chat," a half-penny 
weekly, in the theoretical " profits " of which 
he was kindly allowed to participate. But there 
were, in practice, no profits ; and, the chief 
owner of " Chat " judiciously absconding, Mr. 
Sala and his associates found themselves " un- 
der the unpleasant necessity of fighting for the 
small change in the till." 

Mr. Sala's lane, like all others, had its turn- 
ing. The decisive turn came with the close of 
the Crimean War, when he was commissioned 
by Dickens to go to Russia in order to write a 
series of descriptive articles for " Household 
Words." His forte soon became apparent. 
From that date on, Mr. Sala's autobiography 
lapses largely into a perhaps unavoidably jum- 
bled record of his adventures in one country 
or another as a press correspondent the reader 
of it being whisked about geographically in a 
way suggesting that at times the writer must 
have been, like the Irishman's bird, "in two 
places at once." From 1856 downwards, wher- 
ever matters of an exciting nature were stir- 
ring wars or rumors of wars, coronations, po- 
litical murders, revolutions, exhibitions, and the 
like journalistically exploitable doings there 
was Mr. Sala in the thick of it with his pencil 
and notebook. He was in America in '634 
and again in '84 ; with Garibaldi in the Tyrol 
in '65 ; at Paris in '67 and in '70 ; in Turkey in 
'67 ; in Russia again in '76 ; in Spain in '75 ; 
in Australia in '84 ; and so on. He saw Victor 
Emmanuel's triumphal entry into Venice, and, 
later, into Rome ; he saw the obsequies of the 
murdered Tsar Alexander II., and the coro- 
nation of his successor; he passed through the 
siege of Paris, and an after-dinner speech by 



108 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



Mr. Chauncey Depew and we regret to add 
here that, like most Englishmen, he declines to 
indorse Mr. Depew's post-prandial wit. Says 
Mr. Sala, with that singular insensibility to 
the fine point of our national humor, so often 
noted by Mr. Howells, Professor Matthews, and 
others : 

" Mr. Chauncey Depew made a great point in his 
speech by saying that I was going to Australia by way 
of Portland, in the State of Maine: a city which I never 
had the pleasure of visiting; but he repeated the asser- 
tion over and over again, and every time he reiterated 
it the company laughed uproariously: a circumstance 
which strengthened a long-existing conviction in my 
mind that in after-dinner speaking and ' stage-gagging ' 
you have only to continually repeat something ' What's 
o'clock ? ' or That's the idea ! ' or < How do you feel 
now ? ' or ' Still I am not happy! ' to excite the hilarity 
of your hearers." 

From Mr. Sala's anecdotes of Garibaldi we 
select a characteristic one, touching the final 
disposal of that hero's General's uniform, a 
gorgeous affair, much despised by its owner, 
which contrasted queerly enough with the his- 
toric red woollen shirt of campaigning days. 
The General wore the uniform but twice, on 
great state occasions, and that under protest. 

" When he returned to his island home at Caprera, it 
is a comical fact that he presented his General's much- 
gold-laced panoply to his cowherd, who gravely drove 
cattle about the fields of Caprera in this gorgeous mar- 
tial array. Exposure to wind and rain and a scorching 
summer sun very soon reduced the stately garb to a 
lamentable state of seediness ; and the cowherd, who 
preferred freedom of action to being tightly buttoned 
up, always wore the coat open, so as to display a coarse 
canvas shirt, with a red woollen sash round the waist. 
It was the delight of Garibaldi and his friends, when 
they met the cowherd, gravely to salute him in military 
fashion, and hail him as ' mio Generale.' " 

We shall end our poachings on Mr. Sala's 
well-stocked, if somewhat ill-ordered, preserves 
with the story of his encounter with a late no- 
torious character who, by an oversight prob- 
ably, missed inclusion in Mr. Seccombe's recent 
book on " Eminent Scoundrels." In February, 
1889, Mr. Sala received a note written in hot 
haste by Mr. Henry Labouchere, which ran thus : 
" Can you leave everything, and come here 
at once ? Most important business. H. L." 
In a quarter of an hour he was seated in Mr. La- 
bouchere's library. The member for Northamp- 
ton was not alone. 

" Ensconced in a roomy fauteuil a few paces from 
Mr. Labouchere's desk there was a somewhat burly in- 
dividual of middle stature and of more than middle age. 
He looked fully sixty; but his elderly aspect was en- 
hanced by his baldness, which revealed a large amount 
of oval os frontis fringed by grey locks. He had an 
eye-glass screwed into one eye, and was using this op- 
tical aid most assiduously, for he was poring over a copy 



of that morning's issue of the ' Times,' going right down 
one column and apparently up it again; then taking 
column after column in succession; then harking back 
as though he had omitted some choice paragraph; and 
then resuming the sequence of his lecture, ever and 
anon tapping that ovoid frontal bone of his, as though 
to evoke memories of the past, with a little silver pen- 
cil case. I noticed his somewhat shabby-genteel attire; 
and in particular I observed that the hand which held the 
copy of the ' Times ' never ceased to shake. Mr. La- 
bouchere, in his most courteous manner and his blandest 
tone said, Allow me to introduce you to a gentleman 

of whom you must have heard a great deal, Mr. ' 

I replied, ' There is not the slightest necessity for nam- 
ing him. I know him well enough. That's Mr. Pigott.' 
. . . Mr. Labouchere continued: 'The fact is that Mr. 
Pigott has come here quite unsolicited, to make a full 
confession. I told him that I would listen to nothing 
save in the presence of a witness, and remembering 
that you lived close by, I thought you would not mind 
coming here and listening to what Mr. Pigott has to 
confess, which will be taken down, word by word, from 
his dictation in writing.' " 

The veracious Pigott, ostensibly studying the 
" Times," had clearly been trying to screw his 
faltering courage up to the sticking-point of his 
now famous confession. At length he rose, and 
stood beside Mr. Labouchere's desk. He did 
not change color, says Mr. Sala ; he did not 
blench ; but, at first in a half-musing tone, then 
louder and more fluently, he told his shameful 
story, coolly confessing that he alone had 
forged the letters alleged to have been writ- 
ten by Mr. Parnell, and minutely describing 
the way in which he had done it. Says Mr. 
Sala: 

"No pressure was put upon him; no leading ques- 
tions were asked him ; and he went on quietly and con- 
tinuously to the end of a story which I should have 
thought amazing had I not had occasion to hear many 
more tales even more astounding. He was not voluble, 
but he was collected, clear, and coherent; nor, although 
he repeatedly confessed to forgery, fraud, deception, 
and misrepresentation, did he seem overcome with any- 
thing approaching active shame." 

Commenting on the Pigott confession, Mr. Sala 
concludes : 

" Whether the man with the bald head and the eye- 
glass in the library at Grosvenor Gardens was telling 
the truth or uttering another batch of infernal lies, it is 
not for me to determine." 

Mr. Sala's book amply fulfils its author's 
intent to "give the general public a definite 
idea of the character and the career of a work- 
ing journalist in the second, third, and fourth 
decades of the Victorian era." E G> j^ 



MATTHEW ARNOLD'S letters, which are still far from 
being ready for publication, are said to be very intime, 
and to cover the period between the years 1848 and 
1888. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



109 



LITERATURE AS A UNIVERSITY STUDY.* 

When I was a student in Germany, I went 
one morning to my lecture ; and Professor 
Sievers, instead of beginning at once, in the 
rather abrupt professorial manner, on the sub- 
ject of the day, spoke for some minutes on the 
character and the work of Professor Zarncke 
of Leipzig, who had just died. Professor Siev- 
ers had himself been one of Zarncke's students, 
and he wished to make his own students un- 
derstand and feel what the work of his master 
had been to German philology. Later in the 
morning I went to hear a certain privat-docent, 
and he too began his lecture with feeling words 
on the character and scholarship of Zarncke, 
with whom he too had studied, many years after 
Professor Sievers. I was much struck by this 
tribute to the power of the teacher ; it had 
something in it more impressive than the Ju- 
bilaum or the Festschrift. A science that has 
such professors is fortunate ; it is thus that its 
best traditions are kept up, that its real life is 
continued. 

We have to-day very, very few teachers of 
English literature who have exercised any such 
influence over their students as Zarncke exer- 
cised for many years over some of the best 
scholars of Germany. But of these few there 
can be no doubt that Professor Corson is one. 
I do not know who among the younger teach- 
ers of English have ever studied with him ; 
but they know themselves, which is the im- 
portant matter, and their students reap the 
benefit of it. Among all the teachers in Amer- 
ica, I suppose Professor Corson is one of the 
few who are really men of genius. With all 
his eccentricities and mistakes (I speak with 
too much earnestness to have regard to conven- 
tionality), Professor Corson has a keenness of 
insight into the living meaning of things that 
I can compare only with the power of Mr. 
Ruskin, or possibly of Professor Dowden, 
among those now living who have given thought 
and study to the interpretation of literature. 

It is only of recent years that this power 
has come to expression in books. And these 
books, remarkable contributions to criticism 
as they are, do not adequately convey Profes- 
sor Corson's influence. It is therefore an ex- 
cellent thing that he has now endeavored to 
condense the spirit of his teaching into an 
essay called " The Aims of Literary Study." 
It will readily be inferred that I consider the 

*THE AIMS OF LITERARY STUDY. By Hiram Corson, 
LL.D. New York : Macmillan & Co. 



book of extreme value to all interested in the 
subject. It has the great merit of conveying 
successfully just what it attempts to convey. I 
do not think anyone could mistake it. A stu- 
dent of Professor Corson's who reads it feels at 
once a revival of the old fire that was kindled 
when he first went into that stuffy lecture-room 
in White Hall. On others, the effect will per- 
haps hardly be so striking ; but still the book 
will say what it is meant to say. 

The purport of the book will be best given 
by some extracts ; it would lose by the attempt 
to paraphrase. It is very easy to misrepresent 
by means of extracts, but I hope the following 
will give an idea of the direction in which Pro- 
fessor Corson's power has been felt by his 
students. 

" Literature is not a mere knowledge subject, as the 
word knowledge is usually understood, namely, that with 
which the discursive, formulating intellect has to do. But 
it is a knowledge subject (only that and nothing more) if 
that higher form of knowledge be meant, which is quite 
outside of the domain of the intellect a knowledge 
which is a matter of spiritual consciousness and which 
the intellect cannot translate into a judgment. It is 
nevertheless, at the same time, the most distinct and 
vital kind of knowledge " (p. 25). 

" The human spirit is a complexly organized, individ- 
ualized divine force, which in most men is cabined, crib- 
bed, confined; and in consequence, more or less qui- 
escent ; only in a very few does it attain to an abnormal 
quickening such a quickening as leads to a more or 
less direct perception of truth, which is a characteristic of 
genius. But there have always been men, in all times and 
places and in all conditions of life, whose spiritual sen- 
sitiveness has been exceptional men who have served 
as beacons to their fellows. It is the spiritual sensitive- 
ness of the few which has moved the mass of mankind 
forward. . . The intellect plays a secondary part" (p. 39). 

" Being is teaching, the highest, the only quickening 
mode of teaching; the only mode which secures that un- 
conscious following of a superior spirit by an inferior 
spirit of a kindled soul by an unkindled soul. ' Surely,' 
says Walt Whitman, 

' Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her 

I shall follow, 

As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps any- 
where around the globe.' 

And so, to get at the being of a great author, to come 
into relationship with his absolute personality, is the 
highest result of the study of his works " (p. 57). 

" The condition under which our souls silently shape 
themselves to whatever is, spiritually speaking, most 
shapely, outside of ourselves, is that we attain to what 
Wordsworth calls a wise passiveness.' It is a thing to be 
attained to, and a very difficult thing to be attained to, 
especially in these days of stress and strain in temporal 
matters. A wise passiveness. The epithet ' wise ' means 
wise in heart; and a wise passiveness I understand to 
be quite synonymous with the Christian idea of humility 
that is, not a self-depreciation, but, rather, a spontan- 
eous and even unconscious fealty, an unswerving loyalty, 
to what is spiritually above us" (p. 10). 

" How is the best response to the essential life of a 



110 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



poem to be secured by the teacher from the student ? 
I answer, by the fullest interpretative vocal rendering 
of it. And by < fullest ' I mean that the vocal render- 
ing must exhibit not only the definite intellectual artic- 
ulation or framework of a poem, through emphasis, 
grouping, etc., but must, through intonation, varied qual- 
ity of voice, and other means, exhibit that which is in- 
definite to the intellect. The latter is the main object of 
vocal rendering. A product of the insulated intellect 
does not need a vocal rendering" (p. 99). 

It is impossible to give the full purport of a 
book in half a dozen extracts, yet these quota- 
tions will, I hope, give an approximate notion 
of what Professor Corson would have the teach- 
ing of English literature. He would have it 
a force which should form and strengthen the 
spiritual nature of the student. With his in- 
tellect, in and for itself, it would have nothing 
to do. Spiritual and intellectual, we know 
well enough what the words mean, though it is 
hard to define the precise difference. Now any- 
one can see the value of such suggestions ; the 
difficulty comes in carrying them out. I believe 
there will be many a zealous and practical 
teacher of literature who, having read the book 
thoughtfully, and considered what it implies in 
university teaching nowadays, will lay it down 
with a " This will never do." Such is, in fact, 
my own feeling, to be quite honest. It will not 
do, for university teaching. Professor Cor- 
son's answer will be, " So much the worse for 
the universities and those who are taught 
there." And to see how good is to come out 
of the deadlock requires a wiser head than 
mine. But there are one or two things which 
should be held in mind. 

Universities and colleges at present con- 
cern themselves almost entirely with one only 
of the several elements which should make a 
part of everybody's education. Surroundings, 
conduct, art, religion, these are elements of 
vast importance in education; but with these 
the university does not particularly concern 
itself. Whether this confinement of its sphere 
be for good or ill, may be an open question ; 
but, on the whole, it will be allowed that as a 
matter of fact the university does very largely 
confine itself to science. Some universities are 
devoted to science for its own sake, and not as 
an educational agent. But our American uni- 
versities deal chiefly with science for its edu- 
cational effect. Now the educational effect of 
science is two-fold : it is special, as when a 
man who intends to be a chemist studies chem- 
istry, or as when a man who desires to have 
any sort of information or training pursues the 
particular study that will give him the informa- 



tion and training he desires ; and it is also gen- 
eral, as when we consider the strengthening 
and formative effect of university study as a 
whole. In these two directions tends almost all 
university study. It educates a man in partic- 
ular branches of knowledge, and it gives him 
also the discipline of scientific thinking. Those 
things which cannot be brought under one or 
another head do not, as a rule, have any place 
in university curricula. Many excellent edu- 
cational forces have no place in university curri- 
cula. Conduct, surroundings, art, religion, 
have no formal representation there except as 
dealt with by science. Cardinal Newman, in 
speaking of a certain theory or philosophy, once 
said : " Where it prevails, it is as unreasonable 
to demand for religion a chair in a university, 
as to demand one for fine feeling, sense of hon- 
our, patriotism, gratitude, maternal affection, 
or good companionship, proposals which would 
be simply unmeaning." The university, in 
other words, is commonly regarded as the train- 
ing-school for the intellect. And in no scheme 
for intellectual training alone does Professor 
Corson's literary study find any place ; he 
would be the first to say so. Whether it should 
be so, is another matter. That it is so, is fully 
understood by Professor Corson, as we see by 
his treatment of that essential feature of the 
present university system, the examination. 
The university concerns itself with intellectual 
training ; its whole system, and method, and 
discipline is designed for intellectual training. 
Other educational forces it deals with only in- 
cidentally ; they must look out for themselves. 

So the matter stands at present. Literature 
is, in a manner, out of place in the universities. 
Every good teacher of literature has felt it a 
hundred times. The study of language is one 
thing ; but the study of literature as one of 
the fine arts, save as a branch of history or 
psychology, is not a university discipline. Ef- 
forts to make it such result to the detriment of 
literature as an art. And that gives the re- 
lation of Professor Corson's book to present 
university teaching. 

One thing further : In spite of much that 
may be said, it does not seem to me that the 
present is a time in which the intellect is ac- 
corded too high a place of honor. I should 
say, on the other hand, that comparatively few 
people nowadays have had the advantage of an 
education which has enabled them to use their 
intellects to full advantage. The time is not 
overburdened with thought ; or if it is, the 
trouble lies with those who would like to think. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



ill 



The schools may be full of ridiculous analytic 
method in the name of thought, but the world 
is full of ridiculous mental processes of no name 
at all. One may be heartily in sympathy with 
Professor Corson's enthusiasm for spiritual ed- 
ucation, and yet not acknowledge that we have 
too much intellectual education. Or we may 
have too much of it, but it isn't of the right 
sort. The question is not one of substitution. 
We must keep on doing one thing (do it better 
if only we could), and not leave the other un- 
done. 

I have tried to show clearly the place of this 
book of Professor Corson's in our thinking 
about education. It is a very small book 
in fact, it is an 18mo. I wish it were larger, 
for it ought to hold a place of dignity on the 
book-shelf alongside of works of greater size but 
less excellence. In its present shape, however, 
it will be easier to bind it upon the tablet of 
the heart which is rather more to the purpose. 

EDWARD E. HALE, JR. 



AN UNSUCCESSFUL, HISTORY.* 



President Andrews, of Brown University, 
has written a history of the United States, in 
two volumes. It begins with pre-historic Amer- 
ica and ends with the Congress of 1894. A 
book of this scope, written in good style, giv- 
ing cleverly an outline of facts for the four 
centuries in which America has been known, 
has long been needed. We have school texts, 
and long scholarly histories ; but practically 
nothing of moderate compass, at once accurate 
and readable. The series of three little vol- 
umes edited by Professor Hart of Harvard are 
scholarly, truthful, and in every way admira- 
ble ; but it may be that the form and the 
method will not make them attractive to the 
general reader. President Andrews has en- 
deavored to satisfy the need of such a work. 
The disagreeable task of recording his failure 
is thrust upon the reviewer. 

The author gives seven reasons for the ap- 
pearance of these volumes. Among them are 
these : This history is believed to utilize, "more 
than any of its predecessors, the many valuable 
researches of recent years into the rich ar- 
chives of this and other nations"; he has sought 
to make prominent not only the political evo- 
lution, but the social habits and life of the peo- 

* HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By E. Benjamin An- 
drews, D.D.,LL. D., President of Brown University. In two 
yolumes, with maps. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



pie ; " the work strives to observe scrupulous 
proportion in treating the different phases of 
our national career "; " no pains has been 
spared to secure perfect accuracy in all refer- 
ences to dates, persons, and places, so that the 
volume may be used with confidence as a work 
of reference." These are laudable endeavors ; 
but candor compels us to say that they have 
never blossomed into actuality, and that the 
failure of the book is noteworthy in these very 
particulars. 

Whether or not scrupulous proportions have 
been observed is of course a matter of judg- 
ment, and there must be differences of opinion. 
But it seems to me that, in spite of the import- 
ance of the Civil War, a seventh of the whole 
work is too much to devote to its considera- 
tion. There is no space for a discussion of 
the Hutchinson controversy in Massachusetts, 
whereas there is a page given to " Wigs " in the 
chapter on " Social Culture." The chapter on 
" American Manhood in the Revolution " is 
well written, but space might have been found 
for the statement that all of the Americans 
were not Whigs, for we are loth to attribute 
to any reason save want of space the fact that 
the Loyalists are not mentioned. Of course 
this leaves the impression that the American 
Revolution was a vast national uprising, in 
which everyone entered heart and soul. Space, 
it seems, might also have been given, if only 
a line or two, to an admission that we did not 
always whip the British frigates and schooners 
in the war of 1812. Common fairness demands 
this, much as we love to lay the flattering unc- 
tion to our souls that our Yankee sailors in 
many a hard-fought battle proved to the arro- 
gant English tar that he had not acquired a 
monopoly of the ocean. The difference be- 
tween a well and an ill proportioned book may 
be seen by comparing Professor Hart's " Form- 
ation of the Union " with President Andrews's 
treatment of the same period. 

That the author has not succeeded in his en- 
deavor to bring out the " political evolution " 
of the country, is as striking as anything else. 
His treatment of the formation and develop- 
ment of the Republican party, for example, 
leaves almost everything to be desired. A chap- 
ter on the Whig party, which is introduced im- 
mediately after the war of 1812, will leave the 
average reader hopelessly at sea. The word 
Whig was not used until after 1830. It is dis- 
tressing to find Webster's defence of the com- 
promise of 1850 treated of before the Missouri 
compromise. Some regard for chronology is 



112 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



desirable in a popular work. Federalism and 
anti - federalism are neither adequately nor 
clearly treated. The difference between strict 
and loose constructions is thus given : " In 
matters relating to the powers of the general 
government, ought any unclear utterance of the 
Constitution to be so explained as to enlarge 
those powers, or so as to confine them to the 
narrowest possible sphere ? " Surely a consider- 
ation of Hamilton's famous defence of the 
Bank Bill, and of Jefferson's attack upon it, 
might have begotten a more distinct and schol- 
arly statement than this. But in this, as in 
nearly everything else, the book betokens haste. 
The author has not taken the time either to 
turn to the opinions of the men in this famous 
controversy, or to formulate for himself a clear 
and thoughtful definition of the doctrine of 
implied powers. 

The effort to have this volume strictly accu- 
rate " in all references to dates, persons, and 
places " has not been successful. Complete and 
absolute accuracy is perhaps not a possibility 
for anyone; but the author of this book might 
have achieved greater success in his attempt to 
reach the unattainable had he been careful and 
slow. Space will not be taken to give a list of all 
the mistakes. The following examples will suf- 
fice : Of the five maps, three have gross errors 
and a fourth is misleading. The worst is per- 
haps the map purporting to show the " United 
Colonies at the beginning of the Revolution." 
There never was such a country thus divided. 
The map bears on its face marks of its own 
absurdity. The Northwest Territory, for ex- 
ample, organized in 1787, is found on this map. 
The Southwest Territory is there as well. And 
yet Tennessee had been admitted by the time 
the Territory of Mississippi was formed, 
although this also finds its place here. Other 
mistakes in the map need not be mentioned. 
On the map showing the progressive acquisition 
of territory, West Florida is given as part of 
Louisiana. It is true, we claimed it as part of 
our purchase from France ; but modern re- 
search has shown that our claim and our seizure 
were unjustified by any sound title. The map 
introduced to illustrate the "United States af- 
ter the admission of Arkansas " is misleading. 
The author may have had the right idea, but 
the purpose of a map is graphically to show 
facts. What is here called the "Northwest 
Territory not yet admitted," was Michigan 
Territory. Florida was not yet a State in the 
Union, as it here appears to be. 

It may be worth while to point out a few 



other inaccuracies. It is not a pleasant task to 
make a review chiefly a list of blunders, but 
only a recital of some of these can serve to sub- 
stantiate a final judgment on the book. Colum- 
bus did not die in 1505 ; nor is it by any means 
certain that the " Columbus remains till re- 
cently at Havana" are "those of his son Diego." 
The following statement concerning the found- 
ing of Massachusetts is, to say the least, inaccu- 
rate : " Boston was made the capital. Soon em- 
igrants came, and Charlestown was founded." 
As a matter of fact, the founders passed from 
Charlestown to Boston. The year 1638 is not 
generally accepted as the date of the founding 
of Harvard College. McHenry was not " sec- 
ond Secretary of War." The first Congress 
did not establish the mint. It is flattery to say 
that Jefferson was " ardent for the Constitu- 
tion " while it was before the people for adop- 
tion. France gained possession of Louisiana 
in 1800, not 1801. The author gives the price 
which we paid for this accession to our terri- 
tories as eighty millions of francs, " we to as- 
sume in addition the French spoliation claims 
of our citizens." As a matter of fact, the price 
was sixty millions of francs, to be taken by 
France in the form of United States bonds for 
$11,250,000. We were also to pay the debts 
which France owed to American citizens ; these 
were estimated at $3,750,000, or twenty mil- 
lions of francs, the whole sum being $15,000,- 
000, or eighty millions of francs. Again, a 
glance at a trustworthy map would have pre- 
cluded the author from saying that Harrison 
pursued Proctor " up the River Thames to a 
point beyond Sandwich." Sandwich is not on 
the Thames, but several miles south of the 
mouth of that river. At St. Glair's defeat the 
Indians were not " under the redoutable Jos- 
eph Brant." There is some evidence that Brant 
was there and gave some advice to the head 
chieftain, but the Indians were under Little 
Turtle. It is not just accurate to say that the 
fort on the Maumee Rapids was " still held, 
fifty miles within our lines." The fort was not 
built till 1794. It is difficult to determine 
what the author could have had in mind when 
he says : " By 1840 nearly all the land of the 
United States this side the Mississippi had been 
taken up by settlers." There is a very evident 
misprint, such as might escape anyone, on page 
361 of Volume I. Marshall was not one of the 
signers of the Treaty of Ghent. Genet was 
not succeeded by Adet ; Fauchet intervened. 
The tables of population of the Colonies are 
misleading. It is absolutely impossible to give 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



113 



exact figures, and it is perhaps not too much to 
ask that the author give some indication that 
his statements are only estimates. The words 
about the famous Ordinance of 1787 are so 
wrong and misleading that they are worth 
quoting : 

"July 13, 1787, Congress adopted for the govern- 
ment of the Territory the famous Ordinance of 1787. 
It provided for a governor, council, and judges, to be 
appointed by Congress, and a house of representatives 
elected by the people. Its shining excellence was a 
series of compacts between the States and the Terri- 
tories, which guaranteed religious liberty, made grants 
of land and other liberal provisions for schools and col- 
leges, and forever prohibited slavery in the Territory 
or the States which should be made out of it." 

A comparison between these statements and 
the words of the famous Ordinance would be 
interesting. 

There are good things to be said about these 
volumes. The language is at times terse and to 
the point. Whenever the author has taken the 
time to look up his materials and to arrange 
them, he has shown power in narration and 
great vigor in description. In spite of the 
roughness of the style, one is often hurried 
along with a sense of genuine pleasure, and is 
at times aroused to real enthusiasm. This 
power has its dangers ; for the writer of a 
popular narrative is always tempted to make 
sweeping assertions, and to declare in broad 
phrases a mixture of truth and fiction which is 
more characteristic of the historical novel than 
of history. 

One would like to be able to say that, in 
spite of occasional errors in fact, the generali- 
zations and final judgments of these volumes 
are sound and trustworthy, and that the nar- 
rative is so arranged that the reader is led to 
a judicious and sensible comprehension of the 
drift and scope of our history. But it is im- 
possible to reach that decision. The book has 
been written in the utmost haste, at a reckless 
rate of speed, and the indications are apparent 
on almost every page. Careful and thorough 
revision may do something to correct blunders, 
modify paradoxical judgments, and give se- 
quence and clearness to the narration. 

A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 



IT was recently suggested in THE DIAL that a Ranke 
centennial celebration was among the possibilities of 
the present year, and it is now learned that a monu- 
ment has been planned, to be erected at Wiehe, the na- 
tive place of the historian, on December 21, his birth- 
day. 



SOME RECENT BOOKS ON EDUCATION.* 



The first four books in our present list had, in a 
general sense, the same origin. This is described in 
the common preface that introduces them to the 
reader. This preface, which is signed by Mr. R. D. 
Roberts, recites that the Gilchrist Trustees, for whom 
he is Secretary, decided, in the early part of 1893, 
to send five women teachers to the United States, 
for the purpose of studying and reporting upon sec- 
ondary schools for girls, and training colleges for 
women, in different parts of the country ; being 
moved thereto by the growing interest in secondary 
education in the United Kingdom and the import- 
ant problems there awaiting solution. The Trustees 
made their intention widely known, and invited the 
governing bodies of the various women's colleges 
and associations of teachers to submit to them names 
of persons specially qualified to undertake such a 
mission. From the list of names thus furnished, 
after careful consideration of the qualifications of 
the candidates, the Trustees elected the five ladies 
whose names appear on the title-pages of these books, 
and awarded to each of them 100 to enable them 
to spend two months in the United States in prose- 
cuting their inquiries. The five scholars made their 
visits as proposed, and on their return home sub- 
mitted carefully prepared reports of what they had 
seen. The Trustees have aided also in the publi- 
cation of the reports, believing that a knowledge of 
educational systems and experiments that have been 
tried in America cannot fail to be of interest and 
value to teachers in the United Kingdom. These 
facts we have stated, not merely because they serve to 

* METHODS OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. By 
Alice Zimmern, Late Scholar of Girton College, Cambridge 
Mistress at the High School for Girls, Tunbridge Wells. 
London : Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York : Macmil- 
lan & Co. 

GBADED SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA . 
By Mary H. Page, Head Mistress of the Skinners' School, 
Stamford Hill. London : Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New 
York : Macmillan & Co. 

THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN THE UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA. By Amy Blanche Bramwell, B. Sc., Lecturer at 
the Cambridge Training College for Women Teachers ; and 
H. Millicent Hughes, Lecturer on Education and Head of 
Training Department University College, South Wales and 
Monmouthshire. London : Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New 
York : Macmillan & Co. 

THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS IN THE UNITED STATES. By 
Sara A. Burstall, Scholar of Girton College, Cambridge, and 
B.A. University of London. London : Swan, Sonnenschein 
& Co. New York : Macmillan & Co. 

THE EDUCATION OF THE GREEK PEOPLE, and its Influence 
on Civilization. By Thomas Davidson. (International Edu- 
cation Series.) New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC SCHOOL 
SYSTEM. A Historical Sketch. By George H. Martin, A.M., 
Supervisor of Public Schools, Boston, Mass. ( International 
Education Series. ) New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

SYSTEMATIC SCIENCE TEACHING. A Manual of Inductive 
Elementary Work for all Instructors. By George Gardiner 
Howe. ( International Education Series. ) New York : D. Ap- 
pleton & Co. 



114 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



explain the appearance at the same time, from the 
same publishing houses, of four works on such closely 
related subjects, but more especially because they 
suggest the remark that holders of educational trusts, 
and other persons interested in education, in this 
country, could render the cause they have at heart 
a service by emulating the example of the Gilchrist 
Trustees. While the practice is by no means an un- 
known one in our educational annals, it is still one 
that might be extended with much advantage. 

Before the embassy left England, it was found 
advisable, in view of the magnitude of the task, 
somewhat to divide the responsibility; three of its 
members undertook to visit and report upon insti- 
tutions offering the means of general education, 
while the other two occupied themselves exclusively 
with investigating the provision made in the United 
States for the training of teachers. 

The four, or rather five, reports are such in the 
strict sense of the term; they are primarily books 
of facts, statistics, information, rather than argu- 
ment and criticism. Page on page is filled with lit- 
eral transcriptions of courses of study, programmes, 
time-tables. The writers seek to inform their coun- 
trymen in respect to matters that, they think, should 
interest them, and not to correct the shortcomings 
of American teachers and educationalists. We see 
no trace of that self-consciousness which listens for 
an American reflection. While we meet with many 
errors of detail in all the reports, as is natural, we 
cannot doubt the desire of their writers to get at 
the exact truth. When they overlap, they do not 
always agree in facts or conclusions, owing partly, 
but not wholly, to the fact that their observations 
in some measure lay in different fields. Miss Page, 
for instance, observes: "Speaking generally, the 
impression that I received was not only that origin- 
ality and individuality were allowed full play [in 
the schools] where they were good, but that the 
course of study, followed up as it is with frequent 
supervision, proved a great corrective of the mis- 
takes which so often take place in the hands of a 
weak teacher." Miss Zimmern, on the other hand, 
thought too little liberty was left to teachers. " It 
is believed that careful supervision and superin- 
tendence may do much toward obtaining good work 
from a merely average teacher; and as the great 
majority of the American teachers are untrained, 
and may have had no teaching beyond that of the 
High School, and not always that, some such sys- 
tem is absolutely necessary to keep up the standard 
of work. It appears, on the whole, to work well 
and economically, though it is impossible that it 
should not sometimes be galling for a really capable 
, teacher to have to follow such minute directions as 
are laid down in many of the courses of study." 
We need hardly say which of these writers saw 
farther into the general conditions actually existing. 

It must not be supposed, however, that the re- 
ports contain no criticism. The two or three stronger 
ones contain plentiful discussion, put often in the 



form of comparisons of selected points in English 
and American educational practice. As a result, 
the American reader who is not already informed 
upon the subject will find in them much useful in- 
formation in respect to English schools, teachers, 
and methods. Still, the great point of interest for 
such reader will, no doubt, be the impression which 
our systems made on the minds of the five culti- 
vated English ladies, all practical teachers, and all 
intent on discovering what they could that might 
prove advantageous to themselves and their co- 
workers in the good cause. 

All the ladies seem to have been deeply impressed 
by the depth of enthusiasm for education that they 
met with everywhere. Miss Burstall thinks the 
causes are these: The democratic constitution of 
the country ; the estimate put upon the public school 
as a means of assimilating the vast foreign emigra- 
tion and as a pledge of national homogeneity ; and 
education as a means of preserving the ideal and 
spiritual elements of human life in the midst of a 
material civilization. 

We have been particularly interested in the re- 
marks made by several of the writers about the 
teaching of English and English literature as they 
saw it in our schools. Miss Zimmern thought the 
general standing of English language teaching low, 
but was especially impressed by the excellence of 
the literature. We venture to quote one of her 
most interesting and suggestive pages. 

" The teaching of English literature in America pos- 
sesses peculiar interest for the English visitor. If it is 
true that to understand Old England, we ought to see 
New England, where many of our old customs are still 
fresh and living, it is equally true that if we want to find 
a real living love for our English Classics, we had better 
seek it in the United States than on this side of the water. 
In many of our schools there is hardly such a thing as 
literature teaching at all. There is a lesson bearing 
that name on most time-tables, but it is often a lesson 
in language, not always of a systematic character, a great 
part of the time being given to studying etymology of out- 
of-the-way words, and discussing little of unimportant 
details in set books. This deterioration in our literature 
teaching is due to the too successful attempt to make 
literature an examination subject, coupled with the dis- 
astrous system of prescribing set books to be read, re- 
read, criticised, paraphrased, patronized, and found fault 
with by young immature critics. The whole aim of lit- 
erature teaching to train the inind to love of the beau- 
tiful, is forgotten in the necessity of cramming notes 
for examination. Reverence and awe, which it should 
produce in young minds by the presentation of the beau- 
tiful, is exchanged for a desire to spy faults quickly, 
and thus gain marks on questions set in the examination 
about Shakespeare's inconsistency, anachronisms, mis- 
interpretations of history, etc." 

Not second in interest to any of the other volumes 
is the one containing the parallel reports of Miss 
Bramwell and Miss Hughes on the training of 
teachers. The two ladies travelled together, but 
have made separate reports, each writing in total 
ignorance of what the other was saying. 

All the books are written in an appreciative but 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



115 



temperate spirit. There is no fulsomeness or exag- 
geration on the one part, or detraction on the other. 
Miss Bramwell, for example, sums up her observa- 
tions of the training of teachers in this self-contained 
manner : 

" 1. That the State Normal Schools, adhering to old 
traditions, and failing to insist on adequate and thor- 
ough scholarship as an entrance qualification, have been 
obliged to devote themselves, either to securing that 
scholarship, or to the pursuance of so-called training 
under conditions the most conductive to mechanical 
lines of work and dead forms of method. 

"2. That the City Training Schools, being entirely 
local institutions, supported by local funds, and only 
supplying teachers to the schools of the vicinity, are in 
danger of being cramped in their methods by seeking 
to win public favor. 

"3. That the University Departments of Pedagogy, 
especially those belonging to State Universities, are capa- 
ble of affording the widest and best opportunities for the 
thorough training of primary and secondary teachers, 
and in supplying these opportunities, they will not only 
help forward the cause in which they are immediately 
engaged, but afford a valuable means of unifying and 
stimulating education generally." 

If one were searching for the most striking evi- 
dence of the great growth of interest in education 
in this country the last few years, he would perhaps 
find it in the series of volumes bearing the collec- 
tive title of "The International Education Series." 
It must have required no little faith, on the part of 
editor and publishers, to undertake so extensive a 
scheme; and experience has amply justified them. 
The first volume of the series appeared in 1886 ; 
the last one is the twenty-ninth in order, and still 
others are to come. We are not, indeed, shut up to 
the conclusion that so extensive a series was neces- 
sarily contemplated, and are quite at liberty to sup- 
pose that, had it been less successful, but few vol- 
umes would have appeared ; but the editor's origi- 
nal announcement shows that the whole plan lay in 
his mind as clear in 1886 as it does to-day. He is 
to be congratulated, and his publishers also, on the 
success of the enterprise. 

Quite the most notable of the three latest contri- 
butions to the series is that on " The Education of 
the Greek People, and Its Influence on Civiliza- 
tion." Some time ago, Professor Davidson, in his 
admirable work entitled " Aristotle and the Ancient 
Educational Ideals," as he says, " set forth the facts 
of Greek education in historical order"; while his 
present purpose is to " show how the Greek people 
were gradually educated up to that stage of culture 
which made them the teachers of the whole world, 
and what the effect of that teaching has been." 
The one book gives a more objective or external 
view, the other a more subjective or internal one. 
The two, therefore, supplement each other ; and it 
is unfortunate that they could not have appeared in 
the same series. While we find it quite impossible 
to give to the present volume the space that it richly 
deserves, we cannot refrain from calling particular 
attention to the Introduction, which is one of the 



clearest and most satisfactory pieces of educational 
writing that we have recently seen. For a long 
time there has been an infinite amount of talking 
and writing about "nature" and "the natural" in 
education, much the larger part of which has been 
done by men who either had no clear ideas of the 
terms they used, or who failed to express them. 
With these ideas, this Introduction deals in the most 
lucid and convincing manner. The writer begins 
with telling us that, as applied to living things, the 
word "nature" is used in two senses. "In one 
sense, it is the character or type with which a thing 
starts on its separate career, and which, without any 
effort on the part of that thing, but solely with the 
aid of natural forces, determines that career." The 
acorn, bean, chick, and whelp, are given as exam- 
ples. " In the other sense, ' nature ' means that high- 
est possible reality which a living thing, through a 
series of voluntary acts, originating within or with- 
out it, may be made to attain." Thus the rose, the 
orange, the dog, may be brought to such ideal or 
"natural" perfection through the acts of man; 
while man himself, partly through the acts of others, 
and partly through his own self-activity, attains his 
own perfection. These natures may be called, the 
one "original" and the other "ideal"; and it is in 
the line of the second one that the work of edu- 
cation lies. "The aim of education is to develop 
man's ideal nature, which may be, and very often 
is, so different from his original nature that, in or- 
der to make way for the former, the latter may 
have to be crossed, defied, and even to a large ex- 
tent suppressed." This is going to the root of the 
matter. The very important distinction between 
education and erudition is drawn, and then followed 
up by these wise words : 

" It is the failure to draw this necessary distinction 
between education and erudition that is misleading our 
universities into the error of allowing students to ' elect ' 
specialties before they have completed the cycle of ed- 
ucation; the result of which is that we have few men 
of thorough education or of broad and comprehensive 
views. If this evil is ever to be remedied, our univer- 
sities will be obliged, either to abandon this practice, or 
else to give up all attempt to impart education, and de- 
vote themselves solely to erudition, leaving the other to 
academies, gymnasia, or the like." 

In narrating " The Evolution of the Massachu- 
setts Public School System," Mr. Martin unlike 
Mr. Davidson has given us, not a book of thoughts, 
but a book of facts and comments. And very in- 
teresting and important facts and comments they 
are. They give us a clear and just view of the 
evolution of the public school system of Massachu- 
setts, which, when all is told, is the most complete 
system that we have to offer to the attention of the 
world. The writer shows conscientious industry in 
collecting facts, skill in narration, and also a con- 
siderable facility in literary illustration, whereby 
he renders interesting a subject that could easily be 
made tedious and repellant. His book, no doubt, 
grew out of a pitched battle over public-school pio- 



116 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



neering, which Mr. Martin and President Draper 
waged a year or more ago in the pages of " The 
Educational Review "; but the book is thoroughly 
good in tone, and is in no sense keyed to the con- 
troversial note. There is much need of similar 
books devoted to other States, and particularly the 
State of Connecticut. The State Monographs pub- 
lished by the Bureau of Education, while good in 
their way, still leave much to be desired in complete- 
ness of treatment. 

No competent judge will claim that the efforts 
that have been made in the last ten or twenty years 
to give efficient science-teaching in the schools have 
been as successful or satisfactory as could be de- 
sired. Possibly science-teaching has some intrinsic 
difficulties ; certainly school managers have not been 
able to obtain, even when they desired to do so, the 
services of competent science teachers, in adequate 
numbers. It takes time to introduce a great sub- 
ject, and still more a great group of subjects, into the 
schools in such a way as to obtain from it the best 
educational results. Of the several manuals look- 
ing to the proper preparation of science teachers 
that we have seen, Mr. Howe's " Systematic Sci- 
ence Teaching " is the most complete. It shows 
the marks of large experience and great labor on 
the part of its author. While only an expert, or a 
competent teacher who has thoroughly tried the 
book, can pass authoritatively on its merits, any- 
one who has a good general knowledge of the work 
of schools and teaching can see at a glance that 
even the common teacher has here a whole maga- 
zine of hints and suggestions that he can reduce to 
immediate practice, even if he never becomes able 
to use the whole apparatus of method which the 
author has provided. R A> HlNSDALE . 



SKEAT'S GREAT EDITION OF CHAUCER.* 

Since Chalmers published, in 1810, his edition of 
Chaucer's Complete Works, in prose and verse, with 
the addition of a good deal of spurious matter, no 
scholar has till now dared to edit a complete Chaucer. 
And it was well that they waited ; because it is only 
by the tremendous preliminary work of Dr. Furnivall 
that a new and worthy edition of Chaucer has been 
made possible. Perhaps Dr. Furnivall was not the 
first to recognize the fact that complete possession of 
all the authoritative manuscripts of Chaucer was es- 
sential before a new edition could be undertaken ; 
but certainly to his unparalleled energy was due the 
foundation of the Chaucer Society (in 1868), which 
made possible the magnificent Six-text edition of 
"The Canterbury Tales" (1877), the faithful ed- 
ition of the Harleian MSS. (1885), the parallel texts 
of the "Minor Poems" (1880), the editions of 
"Troilus" (1882), of "Boece" (1886), etc. 

* THE, COMPLETE WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Ed- 
ited from numeroiw Manuscripts, by the Rev. Walter W. 
Skeat, Litt.D., LL.D., etc. In six volumes. Oxford : The 
Clarendon Press. New York : Macmillan & Co. 



On the basis of this work of Dr. Furnivall rests 
Professor Skeat's new and great edition of Chaucer. 
The just reputation of Professor Skeat as a thor- 
ough and admirable scholar in Early English, as 
one of the best annotators of Early English texts, 
his previous editions of Piers Plowman, of Barbour, 
of Chaucer's " Minor Poems " and " Legend of 
Good Women," of several of the " Canterbury 
Tales," his " Etymological Dictionary," and the 
learning displayed in these and other works, justified 
high expectations upon the announcement of this new 
complete edition of Chaucer. And now, that the 
six volumes have been published, we can justly 
say that they form the best edition extant, and the 
best edition ever published ; that they represent an 
edition for which not only every " general reader " 
of a high order, but also every scholar, must be 
grateful. I wish to lay additional stress on this 
preliminary statement, because some of the follow- 
ing detailed remarks, which represent the dark side 
of the picture only, might seem to clash somewhat 
with this favorable judgment. 

The first volume consists of some introductory 
matter, a short biography, a list of Chaucer's works, 
and contains besides the text of the " Romaunt of 
the Rose " and of the minor poems, with introduc- 
tions. In the annalistic biography I do not miss 
anything ; but when, under 1373, Dr. Skeat says 
of Chaucer's first visit to Italy, " All that is known 
of this mission is that he visited Florence as well 
as Genoa, and that he returned before Nov. 22, 
1373, on which day he received his pension in per- 
son," he does not lay sufficient stress on the fact, 
brought to light by Dr. Furnivall in 1873, and men- 
tioned by Skeat only in a note, that Chaucer's ac- 
counts of this journey run for the period between 
Dec. 1, 1372, to May 23, 1373. It would be strange 
indeed if these accounts had stopped in the midst 
of his journey. The more natural interpretation 
seems to be, that Chaucer's journey did not last 
more than six months ; and so this document would 
corroborate what Professor Lounsbury expressed, 
for the first time I think, in the introduction to his 
edition of the " Parliament of Foules " that Chau- 
cer had no time to learn Italian in Italy, but was 
sent there just because of his knowledge of the 
Italian language. Besides, the document seems to 
show that Chaucer returned months before the 22d 
of November, there being no evidence that he stayed 
longer than May 23. The burden of proof, then, 
rests upon those who assume the later date. 

When Mr. Skeat (p. liii.) " confidently " dates 
the coarser passages of " The Canterbury Tales " 
after 1387, the date of the death of Chaucer's wife, 
because his wife, Mr. Skeat seems to suppose, kept 
him at the apron-strings of prudery, I cannot sup- 
press a mischievous counter-conjecture that possibly 
Mrs. Chaucer, like many other worthy ladies of her 
time, would by no means have objected to the pro- 
logue of the " Wife of Bath," and many another 
passage which would not do in a " coeducational " 
Chaucer class. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



117 



The paragraph headed " Personal Allusions," in 
which Dr. Skeat includes matters relating to the 
person of the poet, seems to me far from complete. 
I miss a mention of Ballerstedt's careful essay on 
Chaucer's descriptions of nature, an essay which 
contains matter that Dr. Skeat might have made use 
of to advantage. Moreover, some observations on 
Chaucer's humor, on his theory of life, more satis- 
factory references to his religious views, etc., would 
have been desirable. Among the " Historical Allu- 
sions," no mention is made of Harry Bailey, the 
record of whose parliamentary career was first made 
public (as far as I know) by Rendle and Norman 
in their charming book on " The Inns of Old South- 
wark." A quotation from this book on the " Ta- 
bard Inn " would have formed a welcome addition 
to this chapter. I am sorry, too, that Mr. Skeat, 
in his paragraph on the portraits of Chaucer, does 
not aim at greater completeness ; and that in his 
paragraph on "Allusions to Chaucer," he does not 
give a fuller list of Lydgate's references to his 
" Maister." This would belong, of course, more to 
the long-expected volume to be called " Chaucer's 
Praise "; but in the mean time fuller information on 
this subject would have been very welcome. 

The chronological "List of Chaucer's Works," 
(p. Ixii.) is too meagre ; and Dr. Skeat's words, that 
the list is " arranged as nearly as [he] can conjec- 
ture," are misleading. Dr. Skeat is not the first to 
make conjectures about the chronology of Chaucer's 
writings ; and the best conjectures, even of a Pro- 
fessor Skeat, would not go a long way if they were 
not based on or supplemented by the serious work 
of other scholars. As in the third volume, in the 
introduction to the " Legend of Good Women," we 
find Ten Brink's chronology quoted, we may ask, 
why did Mr. Skeat not save space by combining the 
two lists ? and why did he not heighten the value of 
this list by adding a full account of the work of his 
predecessors in this line ? If he had given a synopsis 
of conjectural dates, references to the sources and 
to his own reasons, he would have done an instructive, 
a highly interesting, and a necessary piece of work. 
A careful study of the question would also have 
disclosed to him the fact, which, as far as I know, 
has not yet been recognized, that a French period 
of Chaucer's work (but no Italian period) had been 
suggested long ago by Pauli, years before Ten 
Brink's epoch-making book. Inasmuch as, accord- 
ing to Dr. Skeat's own confession, Ten Brink's 
Skeat till 1887 (although Dr. Furnivall had pub- 
" Studien " (1870) remained unknown to Professor 
lished a translation of the results of Ten Brink's 
Chaucer-chronology in 1871), we fully believe that 
Mr. Skeat arrived at his conclusions independently ; 
but it is in the nature of scientific investigation that 
a man cannot do everything alone, that he must 
have the same great principle as our friend the clerk 
of Oxenford, who " gladly wolde lerne and gladly 
teche." The work of a man like Ten Brink, who 
was not even an " inevitable German," but a Dutch- 
man by birth, can be neglected, or slighted, or 



pushed aside, only at the peril of the scholar who 
is guilty of such disregard. Professor Skeat's atti- 
tude in this instance bears an unfortunate resem- 
blance to that of Mr. Sweet in his remarks upon 
supposed followers and in his silence with respect 
to his own predecessors.* 

The introduction to the " Minor Poems " is, as 
far as I can see, a reprint of the introduction to Dr. 
Skeat's former edition ; but what was very good for 
the old edition may be in some respects insufficient 
for a new one, and out of place in it. So, I think, 
Dr. Skeat's paragraphs on " Early Editions of Chau- 
cer's Works," his old description of Stowe's edition, 
his remarks on Caxton's editions, do not belong to 
this place in a complete edition, but to another part 
of the work altogether. Dr. Skeat's list of the 
MSS. (p. 49) would have gained greatly in value 
if he had seen fit to add approximate dates to each 
and every one of the MSS. which he describes, 
not merely to a few. Here again he might have 
reproduced more fully, or considered critically 
(with reasons added), what had been brought to 
light by the labor of Bond, Thompson, Furnivall, 
and others. To give only a few instances, Dr. 
Skeat's description of Ms. Gg 4, 27, does not in- 
clude any date at all ; from Dr. Furnivall's auto- 
types (of leaves 433, 395, 416, 432, etc.) we learn 
the approximate date 1430-40 ; from the autotype 
of leaf 332 we learn 1420-30; from his "Tempo- 
rary Preface " (51 ) we get the date 1430-40 ; and 
the same valuable publication gives us even Dr. 
Furnivall's view of the dialect of the MS. (p. 59). 
Why does Dr. Skeat not quote this ? Thie auto- 
type of one leaf of Add. MS. 10340 informs us 
that the date is about " the first third of the 15th 
Century "; why does Dr. Skeat not quote this ? 
The Tanner MS. 346 Dr. Skeat calls " a fair MS. 
of the 15th Century," a very safe, but too vague 
conclusion ; from Schick's " Temple of Glass " I 
see that some authorities on whom Schick, a care- 
ful scholar, relies, date it between 1400-1420. 
Fairfax MS. 16, Dr. Skeat dates as " of the 15th 
Century"; in Schick I find it dated "about 1440- 
1450 "; now if Dr. Skeat could not accept this date, 
if he regarded it as given on insufficient authority, 
it would have been his duty to state this ; he would 
greatly have obliged many a scholar not living 
within the reach of the English libraries. 

The introductions to the separate " Minor Poems " 
contain the old material, and the same seems to be 
the case with regard to the notes. As in the old 
edition, a good deal of information given in the in- 
troductions is repeated in the notes ; so the explana- 
tion of the " Herines " given on page 62 is repeated 
on p. 461. Likewise at p. 64 we read, " The whole 

* I am here referring to a remark in the preface to Sweet's 
new edition of the Anglo-Saxon Reader : " It will be found 
that my successors follow me pretty closely. Thus, Kluge 
shows his approval of the way in which I have accomplished 
the difficult task of making a selection from the Laws by re- 
printing my extracts bodily." Unfortunately "The Laws 
of Ine " are to be found in " Leo's Reader," published 
in 1838. 



118 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



poem (the ' Complaint of Mars ') is supposed to be 
sung by a bird and upon St. Valentine's day "; and 
on p. 495, " The whole of this poem is supposed to be 
uttered by a bird on the 14th of Febr."; and similar 
repetitions are to be found in the introductions and 
the corresponding notes to almost all the poems 
(pp. 80 and 542 ; 82 and 550 ; 85 and 556 ; 86 
and 562 ; 559 ; 88 and 563, etc.). 

The introduction to the " Romaunt of the Rose " 
contains a short history of the question of its au- 
thorship, a sketch which, oddly enough, begins with 
Dr. Skeat's own little essay on the subject pub- 
lished in 1880, and mentions neither Ten Brink's 
observations made in 1870 and 1871 (of which Mr. 
Skeat has known since 1887) nor Professor 
Child's doubts and ingenious conjectures made in 
1870. Did Dr. Skeat not realize that in these ob- 
servations of Ten Brink and Child (as Kaluza also 
observes) the theory by which Dr. Skeat and others 
happen to swear now was virtually stated ? For 
Dr. Skeat, the whole question seems to end with 
Kaluza 's essay, which he apparently regards as 
final. Dr. Skeat does not even mention Ten 
Brink's first view, nor Professor Lounsbury's views, 
which might be supported by other reasons than 
those attacked in Kittredge's study. The bare pos- 
sibility of any hypothesis different from the one 
which he advocates seems never to have dawned 
upon the mind of Professor Skeat. The authorship 
of the " Romaunt of the Rose " seems to be a sub- 
ject on which the views of scholars will change 
from decade to decade. But nevertheless, opinions 
will be pronounced with the utmost confidence and 
with passionate denunciation of opposite views, 
while a modest " if " and " perhaps " will be for- 
gotten for the time being by both parties. 

Dr. Skeat, in a paragraph on the French " Ro- 
man de la Rose," quotes Henry Morley, who is no 
authority on the subject, and fails to mention Lan- 
glois' painstaking and splendid work on the sources 
of the Roman; the oversight of Soltoft-Jensen's 
essay on Alanus and the Roman (" Nordisk Tids- 
krift for Filologi," 10, 3) is more pardonable. In 
the introduction to the " Parliament of Foules," no 
mention is made ( as far as I can see ) of Professor 
Lounsbury's excellent edition ; and when Dr. Skeat 
refers to Koch's actual discovery of the historical 
background of the poem in these words, " See on 
this subject Dr. Koch's discussion of the question in 
Essays on Chaucer," I think that the English lan- 
guage might have expressed the plain fact more 
clearly. Koch " discussed " the question indeed, 
but he is the discoverer of the whole matter, and 
Dr. Skeat merely the copyist. 

Before speaking of the text of the " Minor Poems," 
we should give Mr. Skeat's statement from the 
" General Introduction ": " In each case the best 
copy has been selected as the basis of the text, and 
has only been departed from where other copies af- 
forded a better reading. All such variations, as 
regards the wording of the text, are invariably re- 
corded in the footnotes at the bottom of the page 



. . . but I have purposely abstained from record- 
ing variations of reading that are certainly inferior 
to the reading in the text." These words first ap- 
peared in the prospectus, and I confess to an uneasy 
feeling upon the first reading of them. A great edi- 
tion, utilizing the vast results of the labors of the 
Chaucer Society, ought to utilize them in such a 
manner that the personal element, the personal in- 
terference of the editor, would be reduced to a min- 
imum. What seems an " inferior " reading to me 
may be in the eyes of another the better reading ; 
another may shed a new and clearer light on it ; and 
this new light may bring out a hitherto hidden su- 
periority. De gustibus, etc., too, should be a warning 
against being too positive. How many great schol- 
ars in Shakespeare philology, and elsewhere, have 
shown lamentable lack of taste ! Should we prefer 
Bentley's Milton to the old text? Not even for 
Bentley's sake ! With these principles in mind, I 
have made an examination of Professor Skeat's 
text of the poem " Truth," and give now part of 
the result. 

Of the eighteen texts (seventeen manuscripts and 
Caxton's print) which have been re-published by 
the Chaucer Society, seven are enumerated by Mr. 
Skeat, the other ten (or eleven) are sweepingly re- 
ferred to by the simple word u others." Being my- 
self interested in a certain kind of statistics al- 
though not in that kind which has become part of 
philology nowadays, I require greater accuracy. 
These seven MSS., Mr. Skeat, like Koch before 
him (Anglia 1881, 4, 105 ; edition of Minor Poems, 
1883, p. 24) divides into two groups, one group (I 
suppose) being regarded as " superior," the other as 
" inferior." But taking the test-lines, 2, 6, 8, 10, 
19, 20, as a basis, I have come to the conclusion 
that we have to distinguish at least three, probably 
four, different groups. Taking the Ellesmere MS. 
as a basis, which for " Truth " seems not quite as 
good as the Additional and scarcely better than the 
Phillipps MS., Mr. Skeat's text has in line 2 the 
harsh and not at all " simple " reading : " Suffice 
unto thy good." The reading of the Fairfax MS. 
( " Suffice the thy good ") is given in the note and 
called "capital," but the equally good reading of 
the Phillipps MS. (" Suffise the thyne owne ") is 
ignored, as well as the equally good reading of the 
Add. MS., " Suffise thin owen thing." Although 
Mr. Skeat says of the decidedly bad reading of the 
Ellesmere and other MSS., " The sense is simply 
[ ! ] Be content with thy property, though it be 
small," he does not really explain it, nor does he 
support it by a sufficient parallel quotation. Mr. 
Skeat does not mention the reading "with fastnes" 
(of the second Fairfax copy) ; nor does he quote 
the reading " lyuynge " (of an Add. MS.) in the 
foot-note ; nor does he register the reading of two 
MSS., yf (yef), for "though" in the same first 
line ; and when he says, p. 551. seven MSS. have 
" suffice unto thy good," the seven ought to be 
changed into a ten (or, counting Caxton's print, 
eleven). This inaccuracy seems to be due to Skeat's 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



119 



not having taken any notice of the texts of " Truth " 
published by the Chaucer Society since the date of 
his first edition of the " Minor Poems." 

In line 4, the reading blynd of two MSS. is not 
quoted, nor is the reading " is blent " of nine MSS. 
registered, by the side of blente of the Phillipps MS. 
In line 5, the reading of the same MS. Favour is 
not registered, nor thou for thee. In the note to 
line 6 we read, " Most MSS. read Werk or Do ; 
only two have Reule ; " but the facts are that four 
MSS. have werke (wirke, wirche}, four MSS. (not 
two, as Mr. Skeat affirms) have Reule (Rewle, 
Rule), two MSS. have rede, seven MSS. have do 
(doo), and one MS. inserts a different line ; the 
adverb weel is omitted by two MSS.; one MS. has 
men for folk (or folkis, one even forkis /). In line 
7, " thee " stands before " delyuere " in fourteen 
MSS.; and the statement of this fact would have 
been more useful than the whole paragraph against 
this reading (p. 551), and indeed, would seem to 
have been necessary at page 390, where the read- 
ing is given as that of one [ ! ] MS., the Trinity 
College MS. In a note to line 8, referring to the 
reading "Tempest thee noght" we are informed that 
Harleian, Fairfax, and Trinity MSS. read Peyne ; 
but there is nothing in these words to suggest the 
fact that Peyne is the reading of seven more MSS. 
that is, of eleven in all ; we do not learn, that 
Tempest is the reading of five MSS.; that one MS. 
has Ne study not, and another Restreyne the not; 
the eche, yche, etc., the croked of six MSS. and the 
every of one MS. are also not registered. In line 
10 for gret reste are quoted four MSS., whereas it 
is the reading of fifteen MSS.! Mych wele occurs 
in the Phillipps MS. as well as in the Add. MS.; 
Meche rest of the Corpus MS. is not mentioned, 
nor the different line in Add. MS. 22139. The 
reading (1. 11) " Bewar therfore " and " Beware 
alsoo " of twelve MSS. for " And eek bewar " is not 
given ; nor the wholly different reading of the Cor- 
pus MS., nor the reading wall of two MSS., nor 
" hille " of one (the latter being a clerical mistake, 
indeed, so that the omission is excusable after 
Skeat's preliminary statement). In line 12, the 
second Add. MS. has a different line, and instead 
of with the wal we have ayens in three MSS. In 
line 13, the reading Deme thiself of Caxton is not 
given, nor the Dawnte ay of the Harl. MS. In line 
19, the reading " Knowe thi contre " is in six MSS.; 
Looke up on hye is the reading of ten MSS. The 
reading of two MSS. lyft wp thyne ene and lyft vp 
thy hert, is as little recorded as the " thank thy 
god " of three MSS. or the " our lorde " of another 
MS., etc., etc. 

The perusal of this list will be no more interest- 
ing to the reader of these lines, I am sure, than the 
careful comparison was to me ; but it helped me to 
form an opinion on the value of the text, and of 
Mr. Skeat's views about the inferiority and superi- 
ority of a reading in general. Should it turn out 
to be a fact, as I sincerely hope it will not, that 
Mr. Skeat's text of all the other poems is as inac- 



curate as his text of " Truth," we should be forced 
to the conclusion that the text, very readable as it 
is, and perhaps sufficient for ordinary purposes, is 
certainly not a final one, and certainly lacks the 
first requirement of a good text a full considera- 
tion and a patient registration of all the MS. ma- 
terial. 

On page 510, Dr. Skeat ought to have inserted, 
instead of the old Dante quotation for the inscrip- 
tion over the gates in the " Parlament of Foules," 
the real original which is to be found in Boccaccio, 
as Koeppel has shown (Anglia 14,233). 

The second volume contains the texts of " Boece " 
and of " Troilus," with introductions and notes. 
In the printing of " Boethius," Mr. Skeat, follow- 
ing the ingenious suggestion of Bradshaw, has given 
Chaucer's explanations in italics. That it was Brad- 
shaw who first suggested this, Mr. Skeat does not 
take the trouble to tell us ; but I learn it from a 
note of Furnivall's in his edition of " Boece," page 
V. It is a pity that Mr. Skeat's introduction does 
not take any notice of Hodgkin's great chapter on 
" Boethius," which, as well as Dahn's results, would 
have modified considerably the old-fashioned Gib- 
bonesque eulogy of Boethius. On page xvi., Dr. 
Skeat quotes the antiquated remark of Bohn on 
the Tavistock print of Walton's " Boethius," not 
knowing that a copy of it is in Magdalen College 
Library, Oxford. He does not mention the ex- 
tracts given from Bracegirdle's " Boethius " in An- 
glia XV. That Mr. Skeat did not use Peiper's edi- 
tion of the original is also a pity. 

The introduction to " Troilus " contains some 
good things, but it is far from complete ; it does not 
even utilize all the material gained from the sources 
in several separate German dissertations (better 
than the average). Professor Skeat says in this 
Introduction : " This is not the place for a full con- 
sideration of the further question as to the sources 
of information whence Boccaccio and Guido re- 
spectively drew their stories. Nor is it profitable 
to search the supposed works of Dares and Dictys 
for the passages to which Chaucer appears to refer ; 
since he merely knew these authors by name, owing 
to Guide's frequent appeals to them." I wonder 
where " the place for a full consideration " of these 
and other questions should be, if not here? Pro- 
fessor Skeat's remarks do not supersede Ten Brink's 
theory with regard to Benoit. 

The third volume contains the " House of Fame," 
the "Legend of Good Women," the "Astrolabe," 
and an introductory essay on the sources of " The 
Canterbury Tales." I miss, under the " Imitations 
of the House of Fame " (a paragraph that is, as 
usual, given twice first in the introduction and 
then in the notes, p. 243, any reference to the 
careful article of Paul Lange on Gawen Douglas 
and Chaucer. It is stranger still that Mr. Skeat 
" is not aware that anyone has ever doubted [his] 
result" as to the Priority of the "A" Prologue of 
the Legend (p. xxi.) Here again Skeat is, un 
fortunately, quoting his old separate edition (p. 



120 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



xiii.), and has taken no notice of Ten Brink's last 
essay. Skeat's comparison of the two forms is in- 
complete (p. xxii.), even overlooking the three al- 
lusions to Chaucer's age, duly noticed by Ten Brink. 
In the note to the " House of Fame," line 1227, 
Holthausen's little essay (Anglia 16, 264) would 
have heen useful. The edition of the " Astrolabe," 
with its notes and diagrams, is excellent, as far as 
I can judge from a very insufficient knowledge of 
astrology. Some chapters on the " Sources of the 
Canterbury Tales " conclude the volume, in which, 
for the first time since Hertzberg and During (whose 
names might have been mentioned here), a complete 
survey of the field has been made. No mention is 
made of Frankel's quotation from Cropacius (An- 
glia XVI. ) in the note on the sources of the " Mil- 
leres Tale," but if we consider the mass of valuable 
information and of careful compilation, any lacuna 
like this is of little consequence. 

The fourth volume begins with some most wel- 
come additions to the " Minor Poems," viz., three 
new poems which Dr. Skeat's eye was fortunate 
enough to discover and recognize as Chaucer's, 
as in the case of the " Rosamounde " a few years 
ago. After these three poems follows the text of 
" The Canterbury Tales," based on the Ellesmere 
MS. In his introduction on the MSS., Mr. Skeat 
is not able to trace the Norton MS., and therefore 
I beg leave to refer him to Mr. Quaritch, in whose 
hands the MS. now is. The MS. is valued at 
$1500, and we hope that some rich American may 
bring it westward. 

The fifth volume begins with some introductory 
matter on the " Canon of Chaucer's Works," which 
might more appropriately have been placed in the 
first volume. Concerning the so-called Tyrwhitt 
edition, first published by Moxon in 1845, there are 
some very just remarks, which are not, however, 
detailed enough to exhibit the exact relation which 
the text of Moxon's " Essay, Discourse, Notes, and 
Glossary " bears to its prototype. Next follow some 
far from exhaustive remarks upon the text of the 
" Canterbury Tales." Then there are some "Rules 
for Reading," practical hints for the modern 
reader who takes Chaucer in hand without previous 
study of his language. The volume is mainly de- 
voted, however, to the Notes to the Canterbury 
Tales. In these, as was to be expected, Dr. Skeat 
appears at his very best. This is the most complete 
commentary on the Tales ; and even if Dr. Skeat 
had never written anything but this commentary, 
it would have been sufficient to ensure the honora- 
ble association of his name with that of his author 
and to win for him the lasting gratitude of Chau- 
cer students. 

The sixth and concluding volume, which comes 
just in time for a brief mention, contains, in a gen- 
eral Introduction, an account of Chaucer's pronun- 
ciation and versification ; a short Chaucer grammar ; 
a glossarial Index on the genuine works, and one 
each for the Gamelyn and the B. C. Fragments of 
the " Romaunt of the Rose." The most interesting 



addition to these is the Index of Proper Names, and 
an Index of Authors quoted or referred to. 

I conclude this notice by recurring to my opinion, 
expressed at the outset, that, notwithstanding all its 
shortcomings, few finer editions of an old English 
classic have ever been published, and that Dr. 
Skeat's edition of Chaucer is by far the best extant. 

EWALD FLUGEL. 



BBIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 



Translation of 
a popular life 
of Napoleon. 



Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons issue, in 
a neatly made volume of 140 pages, 
the " Napoleon " of Alexandre Du- 
mas, translated by Mr. J. B. Lamer. Mr. Larner's 
seems to be, oddly enough, the first English version, 
though the original is popular and has a continuous 
sale in France. The book is essentially a very con- 
cise review of Napoleon's public, and more especially 
his military, career political crises being briefly 
touched, while of domestic history and criticism of 
personal character there is next to nothing. About 
thirty pages are given to Waterloo, and half that 
number to Marengo ; of the divorce from Josephine 
we find only an indirect mention of five words. The 
volume opens with a brief sketch of Napoleon's 
school-days and youth, and closes with a touching 
chapter on his five years of torment at St. Helena 
under the wardenship of that excessively small crea- 
ture, Sir Hudson Lowe who remains to this day, 
to the continental mind, the type of a singularly re- 
pellant, and not unfamiliar, class of his countrymen. 
" For five years," says Dumas, forcibly and justly, 
though with a certain hint of bathos, "the modern 
Prometheus remained chained to the rock where 
Hudson Lowe preyed upon his heart." A caged 
tiger teased and fretted, from outside the bars, by 
a spiteful, grimacing monkey, were perhaps a truer 
figure. Dumas saw the Emperor twice the first 
time as he drove by on his way to Ligny, amid the 
acclamations of the populace ; the second time on 
his return from Waterloo, in a frozen and ominous 
silence. "Each time he was seated in the same car- 
riage, on the same seat, dressed in the same coat. 
Each time it was the same vague and unoccupied 
look. Each time it was the same face, calm and 
impassable, only his head was a little more inclined 
upon his chest in returning than in going." Mr. 
Larner has tried to make his translation as literal as 
possible ; and while the general result is satisfactory, 
there are occasional nawe renderings which smack 
a little of the humors of the class-room. For in- 
stance, we find General Paoli pronouncing Bona- 
parte "a young man of old-fashioned shape"; and 
we are told that the besiegers of Toulon, " whose 
eyes darted into the city and upon the road, saw the 
conflagration," etc. Without comparing them with 
the original, we venture to say that these and sev- 
eral other like phrases could be polished a little with- 
out sacrificing literalness. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



121 



Biography os In j" s studv of " The Empress Eu- 
the Empress ge"nie " (Dodd, Mead & Co.), M. 

Eugenie. Pierre de Lano appears to have 

taken his heroine's not very imposing mental and 
moral measure pretty correctly. M. de Lano is by 
no means friendly to the Empress, but he writes 
mostly without bitterness; and while finding Eu- 
ge"nie fickle, frivolous, cold, and of narrow aims 
and ambitions, he admits some good qualities, and 
acquits her of grosser accusations which her more 
venomous enemies have not scrupled to make. Eu- 
ge'nie's shortcomings, however, whatever they may 
have been, pale into trivialities beside the damn- 
ing charge that she instigated the war of 1870. 
History now admits that the Emperor opposed the 
war ; as to the degree of his wife's culpability in 
the matter, there seems to be some question. M. 
de Lano has no doubt whatever on this point; and 
his views may be gathered from the following story, 
which he quotes with approval and considers trust- 
worthy though it appears suspiciously melodra- 
matic. It seems that when the debate over the pro- 
posed declaration of war had reached^ts height, the 
Emperor refused to sign the fatal paper. As the 
ministers insisted, "he became angry, he the gen- 
tle, obstinate one, as his mother called him became 
violent, and seizing the decree, tore it in pieces, and 
scattered the fragments on the floor. . . . The Em- 
press, on hearing of the scene which had taken 
place, and of the determination of the Emperor, 
was much annoyed. She was most indignant. She 
now became angry, and having compelled the min- 
isters to restore the manuscript, she took possession 
of the new document, and went with it to the Em- 
peror, who signed it, as it were, in a dream." With- 
out putting too much faith in this anecdote, one may 
add that the seeming stability of the republic gives 
good hope that the long list of mischiefs wrought 
or furthered in France by the ignorant political 
meddlings of royal wives and royal mistresses ended 
with Sedan. The germ of M. de Lano's book is a 
series of articles published in 1890 in the " Figaro." 
These provoked at the time a bitter attack on the 
author in the "Gaulois"; and he now answers his 
critics, and presents a fuller exposition of his case. 
The Empress's life from the time of her marriage 
to the death of the Prince Imperial is freely dealt 
with ; and while M. de Lano is certainly more than 
a bit of a gossip, he appears to have tried to get at 
the truth. 



France and 
the European 
revolution. 



" The Revolutionary and Napoleonic 
Era" (Macmillan) is the initial vol- 
ume of a promising historical series, 
the " Cambridge," which aims to sketch the history 
of modern Europe and its colonies from the close of 
the fifteenth century down to the present time. The 
editor is Dr. G. W. Prothero, Prefessor of History 
in Edinburgh University ; and the author of the 
opening volume is Mr. J. H. Rose, University Ex- 
tension Lecturer in Modern History, late scholar of 
Christ's College, Cambridge. To the French Revo- 



lution proper, its intricate party strifes and dra- 
matic episodes, Mr. Rose has given relatively little 
space (95 out of the 370 pages), his chief aim be- 
ing to make clear the relation of that movement to 
the general European revolution, of which it was an 
earlier and acuter manifestation, and its consequent 
bearing upon existing political boundaries and con- 
ditions. The military dictatorship of Bonaparte, 
born of domestic anarchy and foreign warj curbed 
the revolution in France while extending it over the 
Continent. " The conflict with monarchical Eu- 
rope," says Mr. Rose, "is therefore the central fact 
of the revolution, determining not only the trend of 
events in France, but also the extension of French 
influence over Europe, and the formation of the 
chief Continental States." While Mr. Rose is a 
good narrator, as his admirable account of Water- 
loo attests, his attention is mainly given to showing 
the political and economic bearing of his facts ; 
hence his book is one for the serious reader. The 
volume is well printed, and contains a half-dozen 
excellent maps. 

Too much chit-chat, and too much 
Historical gossip i mpor t a nce attached to trifles, is what 

of modern England. r 

must be generally predicated ot Mrs. 
Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer's otherwise respect- 
able compilation, " England in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury " (McClurg). The author says in the preface 
that she intended at first to call her book " His- 
torical Gossip "; and we see no good reason why the 
change of title was made. It is possible that Mrs. 
Latimer has injected the over-liberal element of 
small-talk into her work as a concession to the " gen- 
eral reader "; and if so, we think she has in many 
cases largely overrated the supposed mental infirm- 
ity and taste for twaddle of that abused individual. 
We can, for instance, fancy no reader " general " 
enough to like his history diluted with such infor- 
mation as this : " After the breakfast was over, 
bride and bridegroom changed their dresses the 
Prince for a dark travelling suit, the Queen for a 
white satin pelisse, trimmed with swan's-down, with 
a white satin bonnet and feather," etc. We would 
not imply, however, that Mrs. Latimer's book is 
barren of instruction, for parts of it are good enough 
to make us wonder the more at the frequency of 
passages like the one quoted; and in styling it a 
compilation it is fair to add that the text is not with- 
out occasional signs of an underlying logical process. 
That the author is not strong in economics is amus- 
ingly indicated by her naive ascription of the forced 
separation of husband and wife in the Union work- 
houses, not to Mr. Malthus and common sense gen- 
erally, but to a wish on the part of the hard-hearted 
framers of the Poor Law of 1834 " to inspire an 
intense horror of the workhouse." England was 
pretty nearly ruined by unwisely relaxing the strin- 
gency of the Elizabethan Poor Law ; and what the 
effect would have been of going further in the same 
direction, and maintaining at the public cost in every 
half-dozen or so parishes a huge establishment for 



122 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



the breeding and rearing of hereditary paupers, Mrs. 
Latimer does not stop to consider. Beginning with 
the year 1822, the author rapidly sketches the lead- 
ing events and personages of the reigns of the last 
two Georges, William IV. and Victoria the last 
reign taking up three-fourths of the book. There 
is a fairly full account of the Reform movement, the 
East Indian administrations and mutiny, and the 
governments of Disraeli and Gladstone. The vol- 
ume is well printed, and contains twenty-seven nota- 
bly good portraits after photographs. 



New handbooks 
of English 
literature. 



A_new series of " Handbooks of En- 
glish Literature," edited by Professor 
j w Hales, is announced, and the 
first volume, " The Age of Pope," by Mr. John 
Dennis, already published (Macmillan). It is pro- 
posed in this series " to deal with the chief epochs 
of English literature in separate volumes of mod- 
erate length, but in such a manner that, taken to- 
gether, they will ultimately form a consecutive his- 
tory." The plan of the series is to adopt for each 
volume some one great writer, such as Chaucer, 
Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, or Wordsworth, " as 
the representative man of his period and the expo- 
nent of its leading tendencies and movements." Pro- 
fessor Hales himself will undertake some of the vol- 
umes, and others are promised by such scholars as 
Dr. Richard Garnett and Professor C. H. Herford. 
This is a promising programme, and we must add 
that Mr. Dennis has dealt with " The Age of Pope " 
in so scholarly and at the same time so interesting 
a way that much is to be hoped of the series thus 
auspiciously inaugurated. The period covered is 
the first half of the eighteenth century. Some idea 
of the spirit in which Mr. Dennis has done his 
work may be got from the following sentences: 
" The first object of a guide is to give accurate in- 
formation ; his second and larger object is to direct 
the reader's steps through a country exhaustless in 
variety and interest." "There is perhaps no dan- 
ger more carefully to be shunned by the student of 
literature than the habit of resting satisfied with 
opinions at second-hand. Better a wrong estimate 
formed after due reading and thought, than a right 
estimate gleaned from critics, without any thought 
at all." 



Introduction 
to English 
literature. 



" This work is an attempt to solve 
the problem of teaching English lit- 
erature." Such are the opening 
words of Professor F. V. N. Painter's preface to 
his "Introduction to English Literature" (Leach). 
Well, we can hardly admit that the problem has 
been solved, although the author has taken a step 
in the right direction. Briefly, he has divided the 
history into seven periods, and for each period has 
written a general characterization, followed by a 
careful study of from one to four authors, and an- 
notated examples of their work. Entire works are 
selected in most cases, although extracts are now 
and then resorted to. The merit of Professor 



Painter's book is that it spares the student the weari- 
some burden of detail forced upon him by most of 
the compilers of such books. Only writers of great 
importance are mentioned at all, and only fifteen 
authors altogether are taken up for careful study. 
But we do not believe that the problem will ever be 
solved by putting history and texts into a single 
volume. What is needed is a history in one rather 
small volume, and a great many annotated texts in 
a very big volume the latter being a book to delve 
in rather than a book to be studied from beginning 
to end. As an alternative for the single big vol- 
ume, we suggest a series of smaller ones, containing 
different sets of texts, the teacher being free to 
choose the volume or volumes that he can best use, 
and to vary the selection from year to year. The 
simple fact is that no student can hope to get any 
satisfaction out of the study of English literature 
unless he is prepared to spend a few dollars upon 
books. 

The volume on Abraham Lincoln by 
fe Mr ' Noah Brooks (Putnam), which 

has been added to the " Heroes of the 
Nations " series, is a new edition of a book first 
published six years ago. The author was in inti- 
mate relations with Mr. Lincoln after 1856, and 
wrote with full knowledge of the man and the times. 
His avowed purpose was to impress the image of 
his hero upon the " heart of that ' common people ' 
whom he loved so well, and of which he was the 
noblest representative." The book is not at all 
critical in its treatment of Lincoln's life. All un- 
pleasant features and events are glossed over after 
the manner of the hero-worshipper. Though it can- 
not compare with other volumes in the series such 
as Hodgkin's Theodoric and Strachan-Davidson's 
Cicero in weight and strength, it will do good as 
a popular life of one whom the people cannot know 
too well or honor too highly. 



Commemorative Five " Commemorative Addresses " 
addresses by by Mr. Parke Godwin are issued in 

Mr. Godwin. attractive shape by Messrs. Harper 

& Brothers. The papers, one and all, are much 
more comprehensive and readable than the collect- 
ive title leads one to expect an occasional address 
being in general a pretty trite and perfunctory per- 
formance. Mr. Godwin's subjects are : George 
William Curtis, Edwin Booth, Louis Kossuth, John 
James Audubon, and William Cullen Bryant. No- 
tably good is the paper on Mr. Curtis really one 
of the best biographical sketches of the Montaigne 
of the "Easy Chair" that we remember to have 
seen. Necessarily a shade declamatory and eulo- 
gistic in tone, the addresses are nevertheless quieter 
and more critical than most compositions of their 
kind ; and their graphic and anecdotal quality makes 
them pleasant reading. Apropos of Mr. Curtis's 
" Brook Farm" experiences, briefly narrated by our 
author, it is instructive to learn that he was chiefly 
remembered by his associates in that venture " for 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



123 



his sprightly leadership of picnics and masquerades, 
and his pleasant singing, after nightfall, of roman- 
zas from the operas." One can hardly fancy the 
genial humorist playing a very serious part in Mr. 
Ripley's idyl or, indeed, taking the idyl itself very 
seriously. 

Miss Anne Hollingsworth Wharton's 
More pictures Colonial Days and Dames" (Lip- 

of Colonial life. . * 

pmcott) torms an acceptable supple- 
ment to her bright little book, "Through Colonial 
Doorways," reviewed at length in THE DIAL for 
May, 1893. The volume presents a chatty picture 
of Colonial home and social life, liberally sprin- 
kled with extracts from letters, journals, etc., of 
the period. It is pretty plain that Miss Wharton 
has written with a certain sense of personal in- 
terest in her theme; and our budding American 
noblesse who "trace back" genealogically to Colo- 
nial and Revolutionary days should find her pages 
by no means "thin sown with profit and delight." 
Outwardly the volume is, like all of Messrs. Lippin- 
cott's recent publications, notably tasteful and at- 
tractive. 



BRIEFER MENTION. 



A batch of modern language publications from the 
press of Mr. W. R. Jenkins includes several useful text- 
books. "Les Historiens Franc.ais du XIXe Siecle," by 
M. C. Fontaine, is a series of selections from the best 
historical writers, forming a fairly connected history of 
France from the age of Louis XIV. to our own times. 
Notes, few but sufficient, are given at the bottom of the 
page. Smaller books are " L' Art d'Inte*resser en Classe," 
including stories, fables, and Labiche's " La Lettre 
Chargde," edited by M. Victor F. Bernard; "La Tra- 
duction Orale," also by M. Bernard ; " La Conversation 
des Enfants," by M. Charles Du Croquet; and "Pre- 
liminary French Drill," by " Veteran." A new French 
text is M. Daudet's " Le Petit Chose," in the " Romans 
Choisis," edited by M. Fontaine. Two stories by Sig. 
de Amicis, " Fortezzo " and " Un Gran Giorno," edited 
by Mr. T. E. Comba, make a pamphlet number of the 
series of " Novelle Italiane." Last of all, there are two 
Spanish texts : " El Final de Norma," by Seiior Alarcdn, 
opening a series of " Novelas Escogidas," and " El Pa- 
jaro Verde," by Senor Valera, opening a series of 
" Cuentos Selectos." The former is edited by Mr. de 
La Cortina, and the latter by Mr. Julio Rojas. 

The multiplication of French texts for school use goes 
merrily on. From Messrs. D. C. Heath & Co. we now 
have editions of " Hernani " and " Ruy Bias," the for- 
mer edited by Dr. George M. Harper, the latter by 
Dr. Samuel Garner. A portrait of Hugo prefaces the 
one, a map of Madrid the other. Introductions and 
notes are excellent in both. The same publishers send 
us M. HaleVy's " L'Abbe" Constantin," edited by Dr. 
Thomas Logie; and M. Pailleron's " Le Monde ou 1'On 
S'Ennuie," edited by Mr. A. C. Pendleton. From Messrs. 
Ginn & Co. we have two useful texts "A Scientific 
French Reader," edited by Mr. Alexander W. Herdler; 
and " Difficult Modern French," edited by M. Albert 
Leune. The former includes short articles with illus- 
trative woodcuts, the latter selections from such men as 



" Stendhal," Gautier, Leconte de Lisle, Flaubert, and 
many of the moderns. The selections are in both prose 
and poetry. Finally, the Christopher Sower Co. pub- 
lish "Jean Mornas " and " Tuyet," two stories by M. 
Jules Claretie, edited in a single volume by Mr. Edward 
H. Magill. 

In the new and revised edition ( Macmillan ) of Dr. 
Oskar Seyffert's " Dictionary of Classical Antiquities " 
English readers are offered what is probably the most 
useful single-volume work upon the subject to be had. 
The present edition, which is the third, has been edited 
by Dr. J. E. Sandys, and brought sufficiently to date to 
include the latest discoveries and theories. The articles 
Comitia, Music, and Theatre, are examples of this incor- 
poration of new matter. There are over seven hundred 
two-columned pages of clear type, nearly five hundred 
illustrations, and full indexes. 

Mr. G. Steel's " An English Grammar and Analysis " 
( Longmans ) hardly satisfies the author's claim of being 
an "improvement in the methods usually followed" in 
language study. In fact, several works could readily 
be called to mind that are distinctly superior to it for 
class-room work. The main fault of the book is the at- 
tempt to bring grammar, etymology, rhetoric and com- 
position within the limits of 300 pages. 

Mr. Thomas Atkinson Jenkins, a candidate for the 
doctorate at the Johns Hopkins University, has just 
published his dissertation, which has for its subject 
" L'Espurgatoire Seint Patriz " of Marie de France. This 
important twelth-century poem is presented in a critical 
text, with a careful study of the language, and intro- 
ductory chapters upon the author, her work, and the 
dialect in which she wrote. Concerning the latter sub- 
ject Mr. Jenkins concludes that her dialect was Franco- 
Norman, thus controverting the opinion of Professor 
Suchier, who declares for a specifically French dialect. 
Mr. Jenkins has produced a solid and valuable piece of 
philological work. 

Three new volumes in " The Student's Series of En- 
glish Classics " (Leach) include Goldsmith's " Traveller" 
and " Deserted Village," edited by Mr. Warren F. 
Gregory; Tennyson's "Elaine," edited by Miss Fannie 
M. McCauley; and " The Merchant of Venice," edited 
by Professor Katharine Lee Bates. The latter volume, 
in particular, is an admirable piece of editorial work, 
having notes that deal largely with parallel passages 
from other poets a sort of help too often neglected by 
commentators. We may also give mention in this 
paragraph to Mr. George P. Baker's edition of Lyly's 
"Endymion" (Holt), which has few notes, but, on the 
other hand, an elaborate biographical and critical intro- 
duction, which shows workmanship of a high order. 

Once in a year or so the University of Nebraska 
issues a pamphlet volume of " University Studies." 
The latest of these issues, dated July, 1894, is at hand, 
and contains three papers of solid value. Mr. E. H. 
Barbour has some " Additional Notes on the New Fos- 
sil, Daimonelit," twelve plates richly illustrating the 
paper. " The Decrease of Predication and of Sentence 
Weight in English Prose " is the subject of a study by 
Mr. G. W. Gerwig. It represents much careful work 
done in continuation of Professor Sherman's chapters 
upon the subject in his " Analytics of Literature." The 
third paper is by Mr. Fred M. Fling, and considers 
Mirabeau as an opponent of absolutism, a subject in- 
teresting in connection with Professor von Hoist's re- 
cent lectures on the great French statesman. 



124 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



YORK ^TOPICS. 

New York, February 11, 1895. 

The " Trilby " living pictures foreshadowed in a 
previous letter have materialized in an elaborate char- 
ity entertainment given last Saturday in the ball-room 
of a fashionable caterer's in this city. " Scenes and 
Songs from Trilby " consisted of tableaux of the princi- 
pal illustrations in the volume, with renderings of the 
songs mentioned therein. The proceeds are to go to the 
New York Kindergarten Association, in which Mrs. 
Wiggin and Mr. Gilder are deeply interested. A copy 
of "Trilby," with autograph inscriptions by Mr. du 
Maurier and Henry James, and a manuscript copy of 
Dr. English's song, " Ben Bolt," was auctioned off by 
Mrs. Wiggin during the intermission for a hundred dol- 
lars, a surprisingly small price considering the packed 
house and the Trilby-mania now rampant. The list of 
lady patronesses included the wives of several literary 
men, as well as a number of society women, some of 
them belonging in a sense to both classes. In fact, 
books are a fad in the outskirts of " society " at present, 
and I have even seen within a week a letter from one 
of the late Mr. McAllister's " Four Hundred " requesting 
the autograph of a well-known New York novelist. 
The chilling thought occurs, however, that she may have 
wanted it for a church fair, and that her interest was 
merely fictitious. After all, this would be quite proper 
in the case of a writer of fiction. " Trilby " enthusiasm 
has reached the art circles also, and various idealized 
portraits of the " dear Trilby " have been painted. The 
best piece of work of this sort which I have seen was 
in the studio of Mr. C. Y. Turner, who has made a 
lovely ideal painting of " Sweet Alice," immortalized in 
" Ben Bolt." The dress of the damsel is copied from 
his mother's wedding-gown, of even date with " Trilby " 
and " Sweet Alice." "And so no more of " Trilby. 

Far removed from this hysteric, hypnotic patroniza- 
tion of literature and art was the lecture given, on the 
morning of the same day, by Mr. William Crary Brown- 
ell, on the life and genius of Auguste Rodin. It was 
delivered at the Metropolitan Museum, in the course 
given under the auspices of Columbia College, having 
already been repeated privately before the Sculpture 
Society. An intelligent and interested audience listened 
to Mr. Brownell's keen characterizations and brilliant 
epigrams. He made very plain the distinction between 
Rodin's art and the academic art of the Institute sculp- 
tors, and illustrated his points with some fifty stereop- 
ticon views of Rodin's work, including details of the 
Dante portal for the new Museum of Decorative Arts 
at Paris, studies of which were shown in a private room 
at the Columbian Exposition, " St. John the Baptist," 
"The Kiss," "The Calais Bourgeois," "A Danaide," 
and portrait statues and busts of Bastien-Lepage, Hugo, 
Laurens, Henly, Legros, and Mme. Morla. Mr. Brownell 
will be succeeded in these Columbia College lectures 
by Mr. T. Humphry Ward, who will give a course on 
" The History of English Art, with especial reference 
to Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney." The first 
lecture, on February 16, treats of art in England under 
the first two Georges. The remaining three are devoted 
separately to the above-mentioned artists. Mr. Ward 
arrived from England last Saturday, after a most tem- 
pestuous voyage. 

It is never safe to " holler " until you are out of the 
woods. It seems that Mr. Robert Underwood John- 
son and the Copyright League, on examining the Cov- 



ert bill for the limitation of newspaper liability, found 
a very large snake in the grass in the shape of possible 
nominal damages for infringement of copyright. In 
spite of Mr. Johnson's efforts, seconded by Mr. Covert, 
to have definite sums ($250 to $5000) named, the bill 
passed the Committee on Patents in its objectionable 
form ; and the fight must be carried on in Congress itself. 
Another correction concerns my reference to Mr. Pick- 
ard and " The Life and Letters of Whittier," the con- 
densation of which seemed to make me reflect on his 
editing of that work. This was quite apart from fey 
intention. In regard to copyright, an important though 
not final decision has been rendered in the famous Rider 
Haggard case, which Mr. Daniel G. Thompson has been 
conducting for Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. The 
chief point at issue was not the constitutionality of the 
International Copyright Law, but the claim that books 
published in the United States are not protected by 
copyright unless the American notice is printed in all 
foreign editions as well. This claim has been set aside 
in favor of Mr. Rider Haggard and his publishers, al- 
though leave is given the defendant firm to plead again 
in answer. 

" The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc," to ap- 
pear serially in " Harper's Monthly," will show Joan, it is 
announced, as a daughter of the people; the scenes and 
incidents of her girlhood among her rustic playmates; 
her childish superstitions ; her distressful solicitudes for 
her country; the heavenly voices and visions that nour- 
ished the hope of deliverance that should surely come 
through her; her conquest of a corrupt court; her mar- 
tial triumphs, and her betrayal and martyrdom. The 
author's name is not disclosed, although he is described 
as one of the most successful among American writers 
of fiction. He is disguised as " the Sieur Louis de 
Conte," Joan's " Page and Secretary." This nom de 
plume almost makes me think that Mr. Janvier is the 
hidden author; but on the whole I stick to "Mark 
Twain " for the present. I trust this work will turn out 
to be an American rival of " Trilby " et al. At the same 
time it should be borne in mind that Mr. Crawford's 
books are reaching large editions, and Mr. Crawford 
is an American, I believe. 

The appointment of Mr. Herbert Putnam, brother of 
the publishers, as librarian of the Boston Public Library, 
meets with solid approval here and in that city. Inci- 
dentally, it leads the Boston " Transcript " to another 
needless outburst of parochialism to the effect that Mr. 
Putnam's being " a New Yorker by birth shall not be 
treasured up against him in Boston, since he has lived 
there but little since his Harvard days and his gradua- 
tion in the class of 1883." Mr. Putnam is a classmate 
of Professor Edward E. Hale, Jr., and of Assistant Sec- 
retary Charles Sumner Hamlin. He organized the new 
Public Library of Minneapolis, and President Eliot has 
said that in doing this he proved himself one of the three 
best librarians in the United States. Mr. Putnam has 
been practicing law in Boston for some three years, but 
had decided to leave that city for New York, so the 
Boston " Herald " says, when the appointment came. 
The traditions of his family and his own personal abil- 
ity promise large results. As for the Public Library, 
the long hiatus in its management has turned out for 
its benefit. May Mr. John Bigelow's inaction as to the 
Tilden trust prove equally beneficial, is the prayer of 
many here; for New York has no public library. 

Two new books of importance, to be published shortly 
by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, as yet unannounced, 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



125 



are " The Mogul Emperors of Hindustan," by Dr. Ed- 
ward S. Holden, and " Letters of a Baritone," by Fran- 
cis Walker. Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons announce 
" The Arthurian Epic," a comparative study of the 
Cambrian, Breton, and Anglo-Norman versions of the 
story, and Tennyson's " Idylls of the King," by S. Hum- 
phreys Gurteen. Mr. Gurteen is a graduate of Cam- 
bridge University, and has become popularly known as 
the originator of charity organization in England. This 
excursion into the field of comparative criticism deals 
with the rise, growth, and later developments of the 
legends relating to King Arthur, from the first mention 
of his name in Welsh song to the epic cyclus perfected 
under the clever romancers of the twelfth century, and 
compares the original tales with Tennyson's versions. 
Many interesting facts in regard to Tennyson's varia- 
tions from the legends are given, as yet generally un- 
known. Mr. Gurteen has gone back to the original 
sources in each case. He is now occupied with a com- 
panion volume to the above, to be entitled " The Epic 
of the Fall of Man." This work will be a comparative 
study of the epics of Cffidmon, Dante, and Milton, with 
critical comparisons of their masterpieces. There is 
room for only a mere mention of the success of Verdi's 
" Falstaff " at the Metropolitan Opera House last week. 
The sale of the Foote collection of books proved suc- 
cessful beyond the expectations of the owner, and was 
an event in the world of letters. Next Thursday the 
Authors Club will hold its first meeting in the rooms 
devoted to it in the new Carnegie annex, first described 
in this correspondence. A notable love-feast is expected. 

ARTHUR STEDMAN. 



IiITEKARY NOTES. 



Messrs. Macmillan & Co. announce a translation of 
the great " Lehrbuch der Botanik," the joint work of 
Drs. Strasburger, Noll, Schenck, and Schimper. 

Mr. W. J. Courthope has long been engaged upon a 
" History of English Poetry," and the first of the four 
volumes projected is now ready for publication. 

" The Publisher's Weekly " records 4484 books issued 
in this country during 1894, a decrease of 650 from the 
total for 1893. The falling-off was mainly in fiction 
and theology. Many departments, on the other hand, 
exhibit a slight increase. 

A uniform library edition of the more popular prose 
works of Robert Louis Stevenson will soon be issued by 
Messrs. Scribner's Sons. The set will number sixteen 
volumes, comprising romances, short stories, and essays, 
and will be published at a reasonable price to meet a 
popular demand. 

New York has had its Grolier Club for several years, 
and now Chicago has its similar organization the Cax- 
ton Club, of which Mr. J. W. Ellsworth is president. 
The Club will soon begin a series of publications, and 
is meanwhile engaged in superintending an exhibition 
of bookbindings to be held at an early date at the Art 
Institute. 

Mr. Thomas B. Mosher, of Portland, Maine, has 
just issued the first number of a monthly magazine 
called " The Bibelot," and containing selections from 
the prose and poetical works of authors whose produc- 
tions are hard to get or out of print. The first number 
is devoted to William Blake. Another will include 
translations of the poems of Villon. 



The School of Applied Ethics, which has already held 
three summer sessions at Plymouth, has added the win- 
ter session to its programme, and began its meetings at 
Washington, D. C., on the thirteenth of this month. 
This winter session will continue for seven weeks, with 
two or three lectures a week. Professors Felix Adler, 
Woodrow Wilson, and Henry C. Adams are the prin- 
cipal lecturers. Three educational conferences, March 
19, 20, and 21, are included in the programme. 

Mr. Karl Karoly, whose beautiful " Raphael's Ma- 
donnas and Other Great Pictures " was one of the most 
successful of recent holiday gift-books, has in press a. 
full account of all " The Paintings of Venice," which 
will be published in a few weeks by Messrs. Bell & 
Sons, London, and Macmillan & Co., New York. The 
book will be handsomely illustrated with photographic 
reproductions of some of the celebrated Venetian pic- 
tures, and will be out before the Art Exposition begins 
in Venice in April. 

The following notes taken from the editorial depart- 
ment of the February " Educational Review " are a 
sound in doctrine as their praise is well-deserved: " The 
last annual report of Superintendent Lane of Chicago 
contains conclusive evidence that, notwithstanding the 
ravings and revilings of certain newspapers specially 
prepared, as Mr. Charles A. Dana would say, to be read 
by fools, the public schools of that city are making sub- 
stantial progress. More than any other city superin- 
tendent in the country, Superintendent Lane has been 
called upon to resist the civium prava jubentium ardor. 
He has stood nobly for the right. He deserves the thanks 
of progressive teachers throughout the land." 

Sir John Robert Seeley, K. C. M. G., author of Ecce 
Homo," The Life and Times of Stein," The Expan- 
sion of England," and small books upon Napoleon and 
Goethe, died at Cambridge on the thirteenth of Jan- 
uary. A historian of the scientific school, his work was- 
without the qualities that attract a large audience (al- 
ways excepting the "Ecce Homo"), but those that 
found their way to it got from it such instruction and 
discipline as has been afforded by few of the historical 
writers of our time. We learn from the " Cambridge 
Review " that Professor Seeley's great work on the for- 
eign policy of England in the seventeenth century was 
nearly completed before the long illness that preceded 
his death. 

The Grolier Club of New New, the parent biblio- 
maniac club of the country, has been giving an inter- 
esting exhibition of historic book-bindings at its club 
building in that city. The books displayed are from 
the libraries of famous collectors, and from the collec- 
tions of various kings of France and England and their 
consorts, and are loaned by members of the club. The 
libraries of Mr. Samuel P. Avery and Mr. Robert Hoe 
have been especially drawn upon. It was something of 
a surprise, our correspondent writes us, to see fifteen or 
twenty handsome volumes from Grolier's library, with 
their distinctive bindings and motto. Books from the 
collections of de Thon, Mazarin, and a host of similar 
amateurs of book-binding, are shown; but the interest 
centres in an extensive exhibit of volumes emblazoned 
with the arms and insignia of certain fair ladies and 
their royal lovers. Diana of Poitiers and Henry II., the 
Marquise de Maintenon and Louis XIV., the Comtesse 
du Barry and Louis XV., are so represented; as well as 
Henry IV. and Margaret of Valois, and Charles I. of 
England and Henrietta Maria. A rare quarto from the 



126 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



library of Henry III. of France bears an inlaid full- 
length portrait of the king worked ont in different 
colored leathers. The exhibition could scarcely be du- 
plicated in this country outside of four or five of the 
New York collectors' libraries. 

Charles Etienne Arthur Gayarre', the Historian of 
Louisiana, died at his home in New Orleans, early in 
the morning of February 11. On the 9th of January 
he celebrated his ninety-first birthday. He was a na- 
tive of New Orleans, and descended from persons em- 
inent in the French colonial history of Louisiana. After 
graduating at the College of Orleans, he studied law in 
Philadelphia, and was there admitted to practice in 
1829. Returning to Louisiana the following year he en- 
tered upon a political career, and was successively State 
Senator, Attorney General, and Presiding Judge of the 
City Court of New Orleans. In 1835 he was elected to 
the U. S. Senate, but ill health prevented his entering 
upon the duties of this office. He went abroad and spent 
eight years in Paris and Madrid. Upon his return he 
was again elected to the State Legislature, and in 1846 
was appointed Secretary of State of Louisiana. This 
office he held for seven years. He was defeated for 
Congress in 1853, and unsuccessful in his attempts to se- 
cure the nomination in 1868. For several years he was 
Reporter for the Supreme Court of his native state. 
Judge Gayarre"s literary life began during his college 
days and continued until within the last decade. His 
more serious work began with the publication of " His- 
toire de la Louisiane," two volumes, in 1847. Historical 
works followed in quick succession, viz., " Romance of the 
History of Louisiana," 1848 ; " Louisiana, Its Colonial 
History and Romance," 1851; "Louisiana, its History 
as a French Colony," two vols., 1851-2 ; " History of the 
Spanish Domination in Louisiana from 1769 to Decem- 
ber 1803," 1854; "History of Louisiana " completed, 
revised, and brought down to 1861, three vols., 1866; 
" Philip II. of Spain," 1866. Some of these comprised 
courses of lectures delivered about 1847-48. He was 
the author of two works of fiction, " Fernando de Le- 
mos " (1872) and its sequel, " Aubert Dubayet" (1882), 
and of two comedies, "The School for Politics "and 
" Dr. Bluff," besides numerous pamphlets, addresses, 
lectures, and magazine articles. The author retained 
his mental vigor to the last. His later years have been 
spent in a modest cottage in the eastern portion of New 
Orleans, not precisely in the old " French Quarter," but 
east of Esplanade street, and in a neighborhood where 
the French element dominates. Of late years it has 
been the custom among his friends to celebrate his birth- 
day in a more or less public manner. Judge Gayarre* 
married many years ago, but was childless. His wife 
survives him. 



TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS. 

February, 1895 (Second List). 

Abelard and Heloise. Anatole France. Cosmopolitan. 
Armenian Melodies. Mary G. Reed. Music. 
Ballet, History and Progress of the. Rosita Mauri. Cosmopol. 
Bimetallism and Legislation. C. S. Thomas. Arena. 
China and Japan. General Lord Wolseley. Cosmopolitan. 
Cotton States Exposition of 1895, The. Review of Reviews. 
Currency Plan, The President's. W. J. Bryan. Arena. 
Divination and Fortune Telling Among the Chinese. Overland. 
Educational Books, Recent. B. A.Hinsdale. Dial (Feb. 16). 
Geological Survey, The U. S. C. D. Walcott. Pop. Science. 
History, An Unsuccessful. A. C. McLaughlin. Dial (Feb. 16). 
Income Tax, The, Opposition to. Overland. 



Indian Territory, Problems in the. 0. H. Platt. No. American. 
Journalist, Confessions of a. Dial (Feb. 16). 
Literature and the English Book Trade. " Ouida." No. Am. 
Literature as a University Study. E.E.Hale, Jr. Dial (Feb. 16) 
Manitoba. E. V. Smalley. Review of Reviews. 
Matrimonial Puzzle, The. H. H. Boyesen. No. American. 
Mind, The Dynamics of. Henry Wood. Arena. 
Mongol Triad, The. Margherita A. Hainm. Overland. 
Music in Court. J. J. Krai. Music. 
Music, The Future of. W. S. B. Mathews. Music. 
National University, The Need of a. North American. 
Oregonian Characteristics. Alfred Holman. Overland. 
Penology in Europe and America. S. J. Barrows. Arena. 
Politics and the Farmer. B. P. Clayton. North American. 
Populist Campaign in Chicago, The. W. J. Abbott. Arena. 
Psychical Comedy, The. C. S. Minot. North American. 
Pulpit, The New. H. R. Haweis. North American. 
Reading and Education. Dial (Feb. 16). 
Rubinstein, Antoine. Review of Reviews. 
Rubinstein, Antoine. Music. 

Serum Treatment of Diphtheria. S.T.Armstrong. Pop. Sci. 
Skeat's Chaucer. Ewald Fliigel. Dial (Feb. 16). 
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Charles D. Lanier. Rev. of Reviews. 
Symbols. Helen Zimmern. Popular Science. 
Thorns of Plants, The. M. Henri Coupin. Popular Science. 
Wild Flowers of Hawaii. Grace C. K. Thompson. Overland. 
Windmills and Meteorology. P. J. De Ridder. Pop. Science. 
Woman Suffrage in the South. Arena. 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 55 titles, includes books re- 
ceived by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Newly collected and 
edited, with memoir, introductions, and notes, by Ed- 
mund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry. 
In 10 vols. Vols. 1, 2, and 3 ; each illus., 12mo, gilt top, 
uncut. Stone & Kimball. Each vol., $1.50. 

Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art ; with a Criti- 
cal Text and a Translation of the Poetics. By S. H. 
Butcher, Litt. D. 8vo, uncut, pp. 384. Macmillan & Co. 
$3.25. 

Corrected Impressions : Essays on Victorian Writers. By 
George Saintsbury. With portrait, 16mo, gilt top, pp. 
218. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.25. 

The Aims of Literary Study. By Hiram Corson, LL. D., 
author of " A Primer of English Verse." 24mo, gilt top, 
pp. 153. Macmillan & Co. 75 cts. 

The Yellow Book : An Illustrated Quarterly. Volume IV., 
January, 1895 ; illus., 12mo, uncut, pp. 285. Copeland & 
Day. $1.50. 

The Overland Monthly, Vol. XXIV., July - December, 
1894. Edited by Rounsevelle Wildman. Illus., large 
8vo, pp. 666. San Francisco : Overland Monthly Pub'g 
Co. $2.25. 

HISTORY. 

The History of the French Revolution, 1789-1800. By 
Louis Adolph Thiers; trans., with notes, etc., by Fred- 
erick Shoberl. New edition in five vols., vols. III., IV., 
and V.; each illus., 8vo, gilt top, uncut. J. B. Lippin- 
cott Co. Per vol., $3. 

Napoleon Bonaparte's First Campaign. With comments 
by Herbert H. Sargent, U. S. A. 12mo, pp. 231. A. C. 
McClurg & Co. $1.50. 

Napoleon III. and Lady Stuart : An Episode of the Tuil- 
eries. By Pierre de Lano ; trans, by A. C. S. With por- 
trait, 12mo, pp. 260. J. Selwin Tait & Sons. $1. 

POETRY. 

In Woods and Fields. By Augusta Larned. 12mo, gilt top, 
pp. 157. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1. 

Select Poems of Sidney Lanier. Edited with introduc- 
tion, notes, etc., by Morgan Callaway, Jr., Ph.D. With 
portrait, 16mo, pp. 97. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1. 

Sonnets and Lyrics. By Katrina Trask, author of " Under 
King Constantine." 12mo, gilt top, pp. 103. A. D. F. 
Randolph & Co. $1. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



127 



Songs from the Nest. By Emily Huntingtpn Miller. With 
frontispiece, 16mo, pp. 85. Chicago : Kindergarten Lit- 
erature Co. 50 cts. 

FICTION. 

The Good Ship Mohock. By W. Clark Russell, author of 

"The Wreck of the Grosvenor." 16mo, pp. 259. D. 

Appleton & Co. $1. 

Doctor Judas : A Portrayal of the Opium Habit. By Will- 
iam Rosser Cobbe. 12mo, pp. 320. S. C. Griggs & Co. 

$1.50. 
Nodmi. By S. Baring-Gould, author of " Little Tu'penny." 

12mo, pp. 263. D. Appleton & Co. $1. 
Paul and Virginia. By Bernardin de Saint-Pierre ; trans. 

with biographical and critical introduction by Melville B. 

Anderson. 16mo, gilt top, pp. 218. A. C. McClurg & 

Co. $1. 
Little Dorrit. By Charles Dickens ; with introduction by 

Charles Dickens, the Younger. Illus., 12mo, pp. 788. 

Macmillan & Co. $1. 
The Mystery of Bvelin Delorme : A Hypnotic Story. By 

Albert Bigelow Paine. 18mo, pp. 129. Arena Pu b'g Co. 

75 cts. 
The Doctor, his Wife, and the Clock. By Anna Kather- 

ine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs). 18mo, pp. 131. Put- 
nam's " Autonym Library." 50 cts. 
Madame Sans-GSne : An Historical Romance. Trans, from 

the French by Louie R. Heller. With frontispiece, 16mo, 

pp. 400. Home Book Co. 50 cts. 

NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES. 

Bonner's Choice Series: For Another's Wrong, by W. 

Heimburg ; illus., 16mo, pp. 358, 50 cts. 
U. S. Book Co.'s Lakewood Series : Berris, by Katherine 

S. Macquoid, author of " Appledore Farm"; 16mo, pp. 

286, 50 cts. 
Harper's Franklin Square Library: A Traveller from 

Altruria, by W. D. Howells ; 12mo, uncut, pp. 318, 50 cts. 

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION. 

The Wonderful Wapentake. By J. S. Fletcher. Illus., 
12mo, uncut, pp. 250. A. C. McClurg & Co. $2. 

The Amateur Emigrant; From the Clyde to Sandy Hook. 
By Robert Louis Stevenson. 16mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 
180. Stone & Kimball. Si. 25. 

In the Heart of the Bitter-Root Mountains : The Story 
of "The Carlin Hunting Party," September Decem- 
ber, 1893. By Heclawa. Illus., 12mo, pp. 259. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. $1.50. 

Trans-Caspia : The Sealed Provinces of the Czar. By M. 
M. Shoemaker, author of " The Kingdom of the White 
Woman." Illus., 12mo, gilt top, pp. 310. Robert Clarke 
Co. $1.50. 

Ancient Rome and Its Neighbourhood : An Illustrated 
Handbook to the Ruins in the City and Campagna. By 
Robert Burn, M.A., author of "Old Rome." Illus., 
12mo, pp. 292. Macmillan & Co. $1.25. 

From a New England Hillside : Notes from Underledge. 
By William Potts. With frontispiece, 24mo, gilt top, pp. 
305. Macmillan & Co. 75 cts. 

POLITICS.-ECONOMICS.-FINANCE. 

Our Fight with Tammany. By Rev. Charles H. Park- 
hurst, D. D. 12mo. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1.25. 

Select Chapters and Passages from " The Wealth of Na- 
tions " of Adam Smith, 1776. 16mo, pp. 285. Macmil- 
lan's " Economic Classics." 75 cts. 

The First Six Chapters of the "Principles of Political 
Economy and Taxation " of David Ricardo, 1817. 16mo, 
pp. 118. Macmillan's " Economic Classics." 75 cts. 

The Currency and the Banking Law of the Dominion of 
Canada, considered with Reference to Currency Reform 
in the U. S. By William C. Cornwell. 8vo, pp. 86. G. 
P. Putnam's Sons. T5 cts. 

The Income- Tax Law; with a Speech by David B. Hill. 
18mo, pp. 90. Brentano's. 10 cts. 

PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS. 

Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophic, mit Besonderer 
Beriicksichtigung der Religionen. Von Dr. Paul Deus- 
sen. 8vo, uncut, pp. 336. Liepzig : F. A. Brockhaus. 

$2.50. 



Comte, Mill, and Spencer: An Outline of Philosophy. By 
John Watson, LL. D., author of " Kant and his English 
Critics." 12mo, uncut, pp. 302. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. 

Ethical Addresses : First Series. By the Lecturers of Eth- 
ical Societies. 12mo, pp. 194. Philadelphia : S. Burns 
Weston. $1. 

THEOLOGY AND RELIGION. 

A Buddhist Catechism : An Introduction to the Teachings 

of the Buddha G6tamo. By Subhadra Bhikshu. 16mo, 

pp. 107. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1. 
Landmarks of Church History to the Reformation. By 

Henry Cowan, D.D. 24mo, pp. 154. A. D. F. Randolph 

& Co. 30 cts. 
The Religions of the World. By G. M. Grant, D.D. 24mo, 

pp. 137. A. D. F. Randolph & Co. 30 cts. 

SCIENCE AND NATURE. 

The Great Ice Age and Its Relation to the Antiquity of 
Man. By James Geikie ; LL.D. Third edition, largely 
rewritten ; illus., 8vo, uncut, pp. 850. D. Appleton & 
Co. $7.50. 

The Pygmies. By A. de Quatrefages ; trans, by Frederick 
Starr. Illus., 12mo, pp. 255. D. Appleton & Co. $1.75. 

Dictionary of Scientific Illustrations and Symbols: 
Moral Truths Mirrored in Scientific Facts. By a Bar- 
rister of the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple. 
12mo, pp. 420. New York : Wilbur B. Ketcham. $2. 

REFERENCE. 

Manners, Customs, and Observances: Their Origin and 
Signification. By Leopold Wagner, author of " Names 
and Their Meanings. 12mo, pp. 318. Macmillan & 
Co. $1.75. 

EDUCATION BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND 

COLLEGE. 
The German Universities : Their Character and Historical 

Development. By Friedrich Paulsen ; authorized trans- 

lation by Edward Delavan Perry. 12mo, uncut, pp. 254. 

Macmillan & Co. $2. 
Higher Medical Education : The True Interest of the Pub- 

lic and of the Profession. By William Pepper, M. D. 

8vo, pp. 100. J. B. Lippincott Co. $1. 
Lectures Faciles pour 1'Etude du Francais. Par Paul 

Bercy, B. L. 12mo, pp. 256. Wm. R. Jenkins. $1. 
Simples Notions de Franc,ais. Par Paul Bercy, B. L. 

Illus., 8vo, pp. 105. Wm. R. Jenkins. 75 cts. 
Second Book in Physiology and Hygiene. By J. H. 

Kellogg, M. D. Illus., 12mo, pp. 291. American Book 

Co. 80 cts. 
Oral Arithmetic by Grades. By Alfred Kirk and A. R. 

Sabin. Books 1 and 2 ; each, 16mo. American Book 

Co. Each, 25 cts. 
Mme. Beck's French Verb Form. 4to. W. R. Jenkins. 

50 cts. 
Partir a Tiempo. For Don Mariano Jos<5 de Larra ; edited 

by Alexander W. Herdler. 16mo, pp. 51. Jenkins's " Tea- 

tro Espaftol." 35 cts. 

MISCELLANEO US. 

Commitment, Detention, Care and Treatment of the 
Insane : A Report of the 4th Section of the Congress of 
Charities of 1893. Edited by G. Alder Blumer, M. D., 
and A. B. Richardson, M.D. 8vo, pp. 300. Johns Hop- 
kins Press. $1.50. 

THE BOOK SHOP, CHICAGO. 

SCARCE BOOKS. BACK-NUMBER MAGAZINES. For any book on any sub- 
ject write to The Book Shop. Catalogues free. 

_ EDUCATIONAL. _ 

MISS GIBBONS' SCHOOL FOR CURLS, New York City. 

No. 55 West 47th st. Mrs. SARAH H. EMERSON, Prin- 
cipal. Reopened October 4. A few boarding pupils taken. 



LADIES' SEMINARY, Freehold, N. J. 

Prepares pupils for College. Broader Seminary Course. 
Room for twenty-five boarders. Individual care of pupils. 
Pleasant family life. Fall term opened Sept. 12, 1894. 

Miss EUNICE D. SEW ALL, Principal. 



128 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 1895. 



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130 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



The Atlantic Monthly for March. 

CONTENTS. 

THE SEATS OF THE MIGHTY. I.-III. Gilbert Parker. 
THE SECRET OF THE ROMAN ORACLES. Eodolfo 

Lanciani. 

SIMULACRA. Madison Cawein. 
SOME CONFESSIONS OF A NOVEL-WRITER. 7. T. 

Trowbridge. 
GRIDOU'S PITY. IN Two PARTS. PART ONE. Grace 

Howard Peirce. 

BOVA UNVISITED. Elisabeth Pullen. 
EVENING IN SALISBURY CLOSE. Clinton Scollard. 
IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION. H. Sidney 

Everett. 

A SINGULAR LIFE. VII.-IX. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 
AT THE GRANITE GATE. Bliss Carman. 
A PUPIL OF HYPATIA. Harriet Waters Preston and 

Louise Dodge. 
SOME WORDS ON THE ETHICS OF COOPERATIVE 

PRODUCTION. J. M. Ludlow. 

THE DIRECTION OF EDUCATION. N. S. Shaler. 
WILLIAM DWIGHT WHITNEY. Charles Eockwell 

Lanman. 
MAJOR AND MINOR BARDS. 

Aldrich's Unguarded Gates and Other Poems. 
CURTIS AS A MAN OF LETTERS. 

Gary's George William Curtis. Curtis's Literary and 
Social Essays. 

COMMENTS ON NEW BOOKS. 
THE CONTRIBUTORS' CLUB. 

The Nameless Season. A Point of Departure. In 
Fealty to Apollo. A Gentle Communist. The Scotch 
Diminutive. The Table of Contents. Heterophemy. 

$4-00 a Year ; 35 cents a Number. 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., BOSTON. 
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MEDITATIONS IN MOTLEY. 

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1895.] 



THE DIAL 



131 



MACMILLAN AND Co. ? s NEW BOOKS. 

NEW WORK BY PROFESSOR BALDWIN, OF PRINCETON. 

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[March 1, 1895. 



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THE DIAL 

21 Semi-fHontfjlg Journal of 3Literarg (Criticism, Uiscugsion, ant Information. 



THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of 
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THE DIAL, 315 Wabash Ave., Chicago. 



No. 809. MARCH 1, 1895. Vol. XV III. 



CONTENTS. 



POETRY AS CRITICISM OF LITERATURE ... 133 

THE PASSING OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 

(Poem). Katharine Lee Bates 135 

COMMUNICATIONS 135 

The Humanities and College Education. M. Brass 

Thomas. 

Dialect Study in America. E. W. Hopkins. 
"Axe" and "Spunky" in Dialect. Henry M. 

Bowden. 
Lafayette and Mirabeau Once More. H. von Hoist. 

THE RENASCENCE OF POE. D. L. Maulsby . . 138 
ART IN PRIMITIVE GREECE. John C. Van Dyke 142 
HENRY OF NAVARRE. W. H. Carruth .... 144 
A NEW ENGLAND NUN. Louis J. Block .... 146 

STUDIES IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. Harry 

Pratt Judson 147 

Shaw's Municipal Government in Great Britain. 
Conkling's City Government in the United States. 
Parkhurst's Our Fight with Tammany. Cham- 
pernowne's The Boss. 

RECENT ENGLISH POETRY. William Morton 

Payne 150 

Watson's Odes and Other Poems. Gosse's In Russet 
and Silver. Davidson's Ballads and Songs. Stnr- 
gis's A Book of Song. Herbert's Windfall and 
Waterdrif t. Miss Kendall's Songs from Dreamland. 
Akerman's The Cross of Sorrow. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 153 

Miss Repplier's latest collection. Side glimpses of the 
Colonial Cavalier. Conversations on literature and 
other matters. Mrs. Fields's " Shelf of Old Books." 
One year of "The Yellow Book." Two popular 
expositions of Buddhism. Selected essays by Maz- 
zini. J. A. Symonds on blank verse. A new history 
of the English language. Mr. James as dramatist. 

BRIEFER MENTION 156 

NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Sted man 157 

LITERARY NOTES 158 

TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS 159 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 150 



POE THY AS CRITICISM OF 
LITERATURE. 

We have heard much (something too much, 
indeed) of poetry as a criticism of life, since 
the time when Matthew Arnold, in his essay on 
Wordsworth, started that famous phrase on its 
career. Its inadequacy has been pointed out 
by many critics since, and it is now, we should 
say, definitely relegated to the limbo of half- 
truths that fascinate for a time by virtue of 
their novelty, but that speedily become discred- 
ited. Probably the most convincing of the 
many protests it evoked was that of the writer 
who urged that, so far from being a mere criti- 
cism upon life, the greatest poetry is life itself, 
in direct transcription. But, while we must 
regard as whimsical the notion that poetry is 
nothing more than criticism, even glorified 
criticism, we may freely admit that there is to 
be found in poetical literature a large element 
critical of life and of many other things as 
well. Among those other things, literature 
itself is of considerable importance ; and we 
here wish to say a few words about the treas- 
ures of literary criticism that are among the 
precious gifts brought us by the poet. 

In this age of the multiplication of antholo- 
gies, it has for many years been to us a matter 
of surprise that some one did not prepare a 
volume of " Poems of Poets," to go with the 
" Poems of Places," the " Poems of Books," 
the " Poems of Nature," and the many other 
special collections. Within the last year or so, 
the want has been supplied, after a fashion, by 
two independent collections ; and the lover of 
poets, as well as the owner of dogs and the 
smoker of tobacco, is now provided with his 
own anthology of favorite pieces. There is 
still room for a better collection than has yet 
been made, but the needs of a deserving class 
of readers have at least received recognition. 

It has often been urged that the critic of any 
art should be at the same time an adept in the 
practice thereof. This view doubtless rests 
upon a misconception, being analogous to the 
view that no one can intelligently read a for- 
eign language without speaking it as well. 
In the case of the language, as is sufficiently 
obvious, the process by which one acquires its 



134 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



use for reading is essentially unlike the pro- 
cess by which one learns to speak it. To speak 
psychologically, the nexus of associative tracks 
worn by much reading of French or Latin is 
one thing, and the nexus worn by much speak- 
ing of a foreign tongue quite another. To be 
more exact, we should perhaps say that the as- 
sociative stimulus, while going over the same 
nerve-track in any particular case, takes one 
direction in the case of reading, and the re- 
verse direction in the case of speech. Because 
the passage from word -symbol to concept is 
easily made, it by no means follows that the pas- 
sage from concept to word-symbol will present 
no difficulty. A similar situation, although 
a far more complicated one, is presented when 
we compare the practice of literary composi- 
tion with its criticism. But it is nevertheless 
true that the reader of a foreign tongue is better 
prepared to get its full significance if his asso- 
ciations have been trained to work freely in both 
directions ; and it is likewise true that the critic 
of literature who has made literature himself 
is, ipso facto, in some respects better equipped 
to understand just what has been accomplished 
by his fellow workers. Only we must not go 
so far as to say that creative power brings with 
it the critical faculty ; the former may indeed 
add something to the effectiveness of the lat- 
ter, but the intuitional character of the one is 
still permanently differentiated from the re- 
flective character of the other. 

That the poets are capable of writing good 
prose criticism of their art, it needs no argu- 
ment to show. We think at once of Lessing 
and Goethe, of Voltaire and Hugo, of Shelley 
and Coleridge, and of fifty others. We are now 
concerned to call attention to the fact that 
some of the most acute and sympathetic criti- 
cism of the poets that we have is to be found 
in poetry itself. Since English literature best 
illustrates this fact, although other literatures 
might profitably be adduced in further support 
of it, we shall be content with English ex- 
amples alone. The good work of poetical criti- 
cism was begun by Chaucer, who labored un- 
der the disadvantage of having no fellow-poets 
of his own speech to sing about, and who was 
thus compelled to find subjects for his "House 
of Fame " and other critical ventures in the 
great names of classical antiquity or of con- 
temporary Italy. From Chaucer's time to the 
present, the work has gone merrily on, and the 
last of our great poets has written more good 
poetry about his fellow-singers than we owe to 
any of his predecessors. 



The contemporaries and immediate followers 
of Chaucer had at least one English poet to 
panegyrize ; and so Gower, and Occleve, and 
Lydgate, to the best of their mean powers, 
paid tribute to their master. Even to-day, do 
we not feel some thrill of sympathy when we 
read Occleve? 

" O maister dere and fader reverent, 
My maister Chaucer, flowre of eloquence, 
Mirrour of fructuous entendement 
O universal fader in science, 
Alias ! that thou thyne excellent prudence 
In thy bedde mortel myghtest not bequethe 
What eyled dethe, alias ! why wolde he sle thee ? " 

When we come down to the Elizabethans, we 
find the poets rioting in versified criticism of 
one another. Shakespeare is a notable excep- 
tion to this rule, and in the one case in which 
he displayed enthusiasm for a contemporary, 
and spoke of " the proud full sail of his great 
verse," he forgot to tell us whom he meant. 
There is a good deal of log-rolling, and no lit- 
tle malice, in all this personal poetry (such 
things have been known in later times, even in 
our own), but many of these tributes strike a 
note of sincerity, and display an insight, for 
which we must ever cherish them. How true, 
for example, is Drayton's familiar description of 
Marlowe : " His raptures were all air and fire"; 
and Barnfield's of Spenser : " Whose deep con- 
ceit is such, as passing all conceit, needs no 
defense "; and Jonson's of Shakespeare : " He 
was not for an age but for all time." 

It is curious to note, as we work down the 
centuries, how the taste of each age is reflected 
in these appreciations of poets by poets. In 
the seventeenth century, Milton and Dryden, 
indeed, as we might naturally expect of the 
two greatest men of their age, showed an un- 
derstanding of Shakespeare's supremacy that 
leaves nothing to be desired ; but the lesser 
men of the time clearly preferred the lesser 
Elizabethans, or the decadent artificers among 
their own contemporaries. The poets of our 
so-called Augustan age usually referred to the 
great English classics in a perfunctory sort of 
way, and gave them but a grudging recogni- 
tion. It is very amusing to find Addison, with 
all the airs of the Superior Person, saying of 
Chaucer that " In vain he jests in his unpol- 
ished strain," and of Spenser, that he " In an- 
cient tales amused a barbarous age," writing 
on the other hand of " Great Cowley then, a 
mighty genius," and going into rhapsodies over 
that " harmonious bard," the " courtly Wai 
ler." Equally amusing contrasted citations 
might be made from Pope. It was only in the 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



135 



later eighteenth century, with Collins and Gray, 
that poetry acquired a saner outlook upon 
itself, and began to grope back toward the old 
truth that art is better than artifice. 

The nineteenth century is so rich in the 
homage of poet to fellow-poet, that an essay, 
rather than a paragraph, would be needed to 
do it justice. Wordsworth's sonnet to Milton, 
Shelley's " Adonai's," Keats's " Chapman's 
Homer," Lander's sonnet " To Robert Brown- 
ing," Mrs. Browning's " Wine of Cyprus," 
Rossetti's "Dante at Verona," Arnold's "Thyr- 
sis," Tennyson's " Alcaics," and Mr. Swin- 
burne's sonnets on the Elizabethan drama- 
tists, are a few of the countless examples that 
will occur to every reader. And we would call 
particular attention to the fine critical quality of 
the mass of work which these poems so imper- 
fectly represent. Their writers have good rea- 
sons for the faith that is in them ; they do not 
merely eulogize, they illuminate as well. If 
this were not so, the present article would have 
no excuse for existence. We do not know 
where in prose to find better criticism than 
Wordsworth's of Milton : 

" Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea ; 
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free," 

or Landor's of Browning : 

" Since Chaucer was alive and hale 
No man has walk'd along our roads with step 
So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue 
So varied in discourse," 

or Arnold's of Goethe : 

" He took the suffering human race, 
He read each wound, each weakness clear ; 
And struck his finger on the place, 
And said : ' Thou ailest here, and here ! "' 

Or Mr. Swinburne's of Dante mourning over 
a country recreant to its mission and dead in 
spirit : 

" The steepness of strange stairs had tired his feet, 
And his lips yet seemed sick of that salt bread 
Wherewith the lips of banishment are fed ; 
But nothing was there in the world so sweet 
As the most bitter love, like God's own grace, 
Wherewith he gazed on that fair buried face." 

We hope that some one will undertake the 
preparation of an enchiridion of poetical crit- 
icism more comprehensive than has yet been 
attempted, a collection of the best things that 
have been said in the poetry of half a dozen 
modern literatures about the best poets of the 
whole world. Such a collection would be of 
the greatest value to the student of literary 
criticism, and would deserve to stand on the 
shelf beside the "Poetics" of Aristotle, the 
treatise of Longinus, the impassioned pleas of 
Sidney and Shelley, and the essays of Coleridge, 
Arnold, and Pater. 



THE PASSING OF CHIRSTINA ROSSETTI. 

It was little for her to die, 

For her to whom breath was prayer, 
For her who had long put by 

Earth-desire ; 

Who had knelt in the Holy Place 
And had drunk the incense-air, 
Till her soul to seek God's face 
Leapt like fire. 

It was only to slip her free 

Of the vestal raiment worn 
O'er the lengthening lily lea 

Toward the west, 
For a robe more lustrous white 

By the sunset spirits borne 
From mansions jewel-bright 
Of her rest. 

It was only to shift her clime, 

Clinging still to the harp of gold, 
Fairy-gift of her cradle-time, 

Angel-gift, 
Of a strain so thrilling rare 

We shall hunger on earthly wold 
And listen if down the air 
Echoes drift. 

It was little for her to pass 

From this storm-sea, sorrow-iced, 
To a summer sea of glass, 

Sea of sky, 
To change the dream and the spur 

For the truth, the goal, the Christ. 
Oh, but it was for her 
Much to die. 

KATHARINE LEE BATES. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 


THE HUMANITIES AND COLLEGE EDUCATION. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

The plea for the humanities as essential to genuine 
culture, in the editorial article of your last issue, is 
greatly needed in these present days, when the philis- 
tinism of Herbert Spencer is too rapidly making its way 
in the faculties of not a few of our Western colleges. 
You put it too mildly, however, when you say that the 
humanities " may fairly demand as much attention and 
as large an expenditure as the sciences of nature." 
Should they not in the curricula of our secondary schools 
and colleges demand more ? The naturalists are not 
modest in their claims. Accepting, as many do, whether 
consciously or unconsciously, the view that man is 
merely the product of his material environment, they 
quite logically exalt the study of that environment above 
the study of man himself. Moreover, in so far as they 
study man it is rather as naturalists than as those who 
recognize and feel the deeper powers and significances 
of human life. But physics, chemistry, physiology, or 
even physiological psychology, cannot rightly and ade- 
quately teach us of man. As Paulsen, who claims that 
in the university the sciences of nature should have 
equal footing with the sciences of man, yet says, " Man 
lives in history, the brute in nature." Hence history, 
sociology, language, literature, psychology in its true 
sense, philosophy, and the great religious books of the 



136 



THE DIAL 



[March l r 



world, will best teach us of man, and best develop the 
finer elements of manhood. And it is to be devoutly 
hoped that our colleges will never wholly cease to recog- 
nize this. Some of them have yielded too much to the 
really arrogant claim that the natural sciences give a 
culture equal if not superior to the humanistic studies. 
Indeed, our educational system is at present in the midst 
of a process of experimentation. The results thus far 
are not, it is true, satisfactory. The former means and 
methods produced a riper and more rounded develop- 
ment. But then what may we not expect when labor- 
atories wholly take the place of libraries, and the things 
of sense absorb our contemplation rather than the things 
of mind ? Certainly we may not expect any ministry 
"to our deepest spiritual needs," nor any of " the finer 
issues of thought and feeling, and the power to quicken 
other spirits to those issues." Darwin, on his knees 
studying the products of a square foot of soil, with one 
whole side of his nature, as he sadly confessed, " atro- 
phied," is the type of this sort of education. Plato, 
with his face upward, and his inward eye fixed on the 
more elusive but nobler realities of the soul, best rep- 
resents the other. And, however Thracian handmaid- 
ens may laugh at the one and extol the other, yet at the 
last " Wisdom is justified of her children." 

Plato's contention, " Until kings are philosophers or 
philosophers kings, cities will never cease from ill," may 
with equal truth be applied to colleges and schools. 
Educators need most of all to be psychologists and phil- 
osophers. They must have a thorough and sympathetic 
knowledge of the human mind and its orderly develop- 
ment. When they attain to this, they will confine to 
the universities, as alone appropriate to them, that sys- 
tem which places all studies on an equal footing and 
allows entire freedom of choice. They will at the same 
time recognize that the peculiar function of the college is 
not to make learned specialists, but to educate. It takes 
young men while still in their formative age, when prin- 
ciples and aims of life are being consciously determined. 
Therefore the course of study which it offers, while by 
no means excluding the natural sciences, should yet be 
largely mafle up of what De Quincey calls " the litera- 
ture of power " as distinguished from " the literature of 
knowledge." Indeed, it would be an excellent plan to 
write on the walls of every college, especially in the 
room where the faculty meets, the entire passage where 
this distinction is so finely drawn out. 

M. BROSS THOMAS. 

Lake Forest University, Feb. 18, 1895. 



DIALECT STUDY IN AMERICA. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

In your last issue, Professor Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
requests such scholars as will contribute to the English 
Dialect Dictionary to send their material either to the 
English or to the American editor. Permit me to sug- 
gest that trouble and inaccuracy may be avoided if all 
the material be sifted first in America. One obvious 
reason for this is furnished by the letter (published in 
the same number of THE DIAL) of Professor Bondu- 
rant, whose words certainly would imply, if they were 
not really meant to convey the impression, that axe (for 
ask), spunky, liefer, peart (in good health), clomb (pro- 
nounced clum), and right (for very), are peculiar to the 
dialect of Southern negroes, although all of them may 
be heard on occasion on Yankee farms or in a Yankee 
school-yard; where, too, "going" (when it is without 
accent) is pronounced gwine, thus: hwarya gon is 



" where are you going," but (in reply) " going home '* 
is gwine hum. Apropos of this, could not sentence ac- 
cent and syncope be noticed in rendering dialectic ex- 
pression ? We venture to doubt whether an uneducated 
negro ever used exactly the expression (cited by Pro- 
fessor Bondurant), " How is your old 'oman ? " Does not 
the darkey say always " Howsya old ? " In respect of 
shet of of shut of'm New England, both forms are heard. 
The idiom is common ; the pronounciation of the verb 
depends on that of the same word when it is used in the 
meaning " close," for the expression shut of is employed 
by them that would not in any circumstances say shet. 
In other words, the provincial idiom, as often happens,, 
survives the intrusion of the new pronunciation. In 
conclusion, may I ask Professor Wheeler what collec- 
tors are to do in the case of words like apron ? The pro- 
nunciations ap-run, a-prun, and a-purn (a-perri) are fre- 
quently heard not only in the same village but even in 
the same family; one of the forms being commonly the 
one taught by the schoolmaster (as far as I have ob- 
served the taught form in this instance is a-purn), and 
therefore of no value. It seems to me that it might be 
well for a committee of them that are interested in the 
matter to formulate some general rules by which col- 
lectors may govern themselves; and that all collections, 
whether made in accordance with these rules or not, 
before they are sent to England should be analyzed by 
a number of Americans who ought to represent differ- 
ent parts of the country, and so be able to control the 
returns. E. W. HOPKINS. 

Bryn Mawr College, Feb. 19, 1895. 



"AXE" AND "SPUNKY" IN DIALECT. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

In your issue of the 16th inst. is an article by Alex- 
ander L. Bondurant, in which he speaks of " the negro 
dialect " as being " rich in survivals," and makes several 
quotations to support the fact. There can be no doubt 
as to the fact stated. Two of his instances, however, 
are of survivals by no means confined to negro or even 
Southern usage. Axe for ask is common in the East,, 
and I think also throughout the North and West ; it is an 
old Anglo-Saxon variant. It occurs in Lowell (" Biglow 
Papers: The Pious Editor's Creed " "I git jest wut I 
axes ") ; and I have frequently heard it in various New 
England States. 

The other word is spunky; and that word is used where- 
ever I have found any Scotch or Irish emigration and 
no part of our land is free from either. Both of these 
survivals are in common use by thousands who have never 
stood in any close connection with negroes. 

HENRY M. BOWDEN, 

Braddock, Pa., Feb. 18, 1895. 



LAFAYETTE AND MIRABEAU, ONCE MORE. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

It would probably be presumptuous on my part to- 
assume that the public are sufficiently interested in my 
writings to warrant my soliciting a second time some 
space to show up Mr. Shorey's most peculiar critical 
methods. But I venture to hope that THE DIAL will 
deem it its own interest as a leading critical journal to 
correct erroneous impressions, for which it has been 
made the vehicle by a contributor. 

Though I can well understand that Mr. Shorey " pre- 
fers " to shift the controversy to another ground, I must 
enter my protest against his doing so. Whether his or 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



my opinions of Mirabeau and Lafayette are correct, is 
not the issue raised by me. Neither would THE DIAL 
be the proper place for such a contention, nor would 
I anywhere enter upon it. My charge was distinctly 
that Mr. Shorey misrepresented me, partly by what he 
said and principally by what he did not say. Mr. Shorey, 
being a lawyer, must be familiar with the maxim that 
suppressio veri is no less an offence than suggestio falsi. 
This charge he has not even attempted to refute. I now 
reiterate it, adding that he has aggravated the offence 
as to myself and extended it to von Sybel and La Marck. 
He says my " charge relating to the conduct of Lafay- 
ette on the 5th and 6th of October, 1789, is supported 
on the authority of the light and frivolous Camille Des- 
moulins " intimating thereby that it is supported only 
on this authority. He keeps his readers in ignorance 
of the fact that I charge the General chiefly with " sins 
of omission " (II., 58), as to which no particular au- 
thority is needed; it is based upon the notorious facts, 
which have never been denied by anyone. He is pleased 
to ignore that I support my view besides by the report 
of the commission of the municipal council, a general 
reference to " the account of La Marck, who speaks 
as an eye-and-ear witness " (II., 63), and a "statement 
of Lafayette himself" (II., 59). The latter is of espe- 
cial import as an item of the circumstantial evidence, 
for, as I expressly state, " though it cannot be directly 
proved that Lafayette rather liked to be led to Ver- 
sailles, circumstantial evidence renders it likely " (II., 
61). By quoting one sentence of von Sybel, depicting 
in general terms Lafayette's character, Mr. Shorey pro- 
duces the impression that the eminent German historian 
is arrayed against me, while he must know, if he has 
read von Sybel, that this authority is altogether on my 
side. Not only is von Sybel's general estimate of La- 
fayette practically identical with mine, but also as to 
the 5th and 6th of October in particular does he make 
exactly the same charge, with this difference only, that 
he substantiates it more than I could do and that he 
formulates it more pointedly (I., 95-105, 4th ed.). 

That I, too, know of noble traits in Lafayette's char- 
acter, the reader of Mr. Shorey's articles is not likely 
to suspect. He will be surely not a little astonished to 
learn that I have written : " Not only his physical cour- 
age and his own belief in the intensity and perfect hon- 
esty of his lofty sentiments and aspirations are above 
suspicion; as to the negative side also his moral cour- 
age must be acknowledged to have been of a high or- 
der " (II., 142). On the other hand, who can suspect, 
from what Mr. Shorey has told him, that his glowing 
picture of the General is confronted in my lectures by 
Jefferson's charge that he had " a canine appetite for 
popularity " (II., 140) by the disparaging declarations 
of La Marck (II., 137, 143, 144), of whom he quotes 
in his first article only an appreciative opinion of a 
considerable number of damaging self-confessions of the 
General (II., 126, 127, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139) ? To 
an unbiased mind these things will be of greater weight 
than the array of historical writers, by which Mr. Shorey 
thinks he can crush me. To the unprofessional reader 
the list will, however, be imposing enough. Upon the 
historian it will with the exception of Taine make 
very little impression. The historian, though he will 
acknowledge Michelet, Martin, and Thiers to be names 
of weight, knows why they are not conclusive authori- 
ties as to Lafayette, apart from the fact that their books 
were written a good many years ago. 

What right has Mr. Shorey to declare his two quota- 



tions from letters to Mercy " the real opinion of La 
Marck in relation to Mirabeau," with the intimation 
that they contain his whole " real opinion," or that what 
he says in his letters to Mirabeau himself is not his real 
opinion ? Such an intimation in the face of what La 
Mark himself has declared to be his real opinion in his 
long " Introduction " to his correspondence with Mira- 
beau taking up more than half of the first volume 
is more than " surprising." Moreover, these quotations 
do not contain anything as to Mirabeau's " venality " or 
even his morality in general, and Mr. Shorey started to 
make up a case against me as to these. Now, as to the 
" venality," why does he not take any notice of Lafay- 
ette's opinion quoted by me (II., 179) that, though he 
" was not inaccessible to money," " for no amount would 
he have sustained an opinion that would have destroyed 
liberty and dishonored his mind " ? As to the morality 
in general was there any necessity whatever of mak- 
ing up a case against me ? Apparently the greatest, for 
Mr. Shorey says: "The author could not well avoid (!) 
stating damaging facts in relation to the character of 
Mirabeau. The question at issue is (!), whether the 
vices and venalities of Mirabeau explain his failure to 
win that confidence of colleagues which is necessary to 
a public man." I leave it to every fair-minded person 
to judge whether that is or is not grossly misrepresent- 
ing by suppressio veri an author, who writes : " But 
there is a third element indispensable in the make-up of 
a genuine statesman's character. The motives and the 
ends must be essentially moral. Was Mirabeau pos- 
sessed of this requisite ? Could (!) it be presumed that 
he possessed it ? It was this question that rendered his 
past an almost insurmountable barrier between him and 
success. Confidence he needed above all, and just this 
he found nowhere. It was bitter and cruel, but terribly 
true ( !) what the father had written : ' He gathers in 
what those reap who have failed as to the basis, the 
morals. . . . He will never obtain confidence, even if 
he tried to deserve it.' And it was by no means only 
the immorality of his youth that caused all to distrust 
him . . . Immorality was so deeply ingrained into his 
whole being, that it would crop out at the slightest pro- 
vocation or temptation ... he was ever lamentably 
ready to make it (the maxim that ' the petty morality 
kills the great morality ') a cloak for his inexcusable (!) 
moral trippings. . . . The moral pollution was certainly 
not only skin-deep. The whole blood was vitiated." 
(II., 236-238.) 

As I am precluded from assuming either that Mr. 
Shorey reckoned upon my not being able once more to 
gain access to the readers of THE DIAL, or that he in- 
tentionally wrongs me, I can find only one explanation 
for his proceeding: as to von Sybel, La Marck, and my- 
self, he has excused himself from reading our books as 
books and contented himself with reading sentences. 

He concludes his second paragraph with the exclama- 
tion, " Poor Camille ! " evidently expecting the reader 
to substitute for " Camille " von Hoist. With all defer- 
ence I submit that my humble name would not be the 
correct substitute. Whether a greater one could claim 
the honor with more propriety, is for the reader to de- 
cide. I herewith abandon the field to Mr. Shorey for 
good. Our way of reading historical books and our 
methods of investigating historical questions are so dif- 
ferent that, in my opinion, our crossing swords can no 
longer be of any benefit to either ourselves or the public. 

H. VON HOLST. 

Chicago, February 13, 1895. 



138 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



Ejje 



THE RENASCENCE OF POE.* 



The appearance of a handsome illustrated 
edition of Poe's complete works, carefully ed- 
ited, opening with a memoir by Professor G. E. 
Woodberry and a special introduction to the 
tales by Mr. E. C. Stedman, is an event of 
considerable importance in the history of Poe's 
fame among his countrymen. For Poe has had 
the singular fortune to be praised with distinc- 
tion in some quarters abroad, while receiving 
generally but a qualified welcome at home. 
Baudelaire hastened to translate the author's 
complete works, with appreciative commentary, 
an act typical of the popular approbation be- 
stowed upon Poe in France to-day. Some of 
the tales have been rendered into Spanish and 
some into German. Ulissi Ortensi, finding the 
example of Baudelaire more potent than his 
warning precept, dared to turn all of the poems 
into musical Italian prose. Among English- 
men, James Hannay of the preceding genera- 
tion, and Professor Ernest Rhys of the present, 
have been intimate and favorable critics. In- 
gram's life of Poe, though discriminating, is 
friendly and full. In illustration of Poe's 
proposition that it takes a poet to catch a poet, 
Robert Browning presented to Mrs. Benzon a 
copy of the poems, dedicated, as were all the 
English editions, to Miss Barrett, and wrote 
on the fly-leaf that the book was given " partly 
on account of the poetry, partly on that of the 
dedication." Mr. Edmund Gosse, after criti- 
cal discussion of the more prominent makers 
of verse in this country, decided that, if Amer- 
ica has produced a great poet, Poe has the best 
claim to that sacred title. And Mr. Andrew 
Lang, in his " Letters to Dead Authors," ad- 
dresses the shade of Poe as that of " the great- 
est poet, perhaps the greatest literary genius," 
of his country. 

On the contrary, excluding the list of the 
poet's personal friends, where, hitherto, could 
we look among his own countrymen for an es- 
timate of his genius in which stinted praise 
should not be outweighed by abundant blame? 
His biographers, from the notorious perversion 
of Griswold to the accurate documentary life 
by Professor Woodberry, have seldom been 
sympathetic. Emerson's ear, insensible to 

* THE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. Newly collected and 
edited, with memoir, introductions, and notes, by Edmund 
Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry. In ten 
volumes, illustrated. Chicago : Stone & Kimball. 



music, found nothing in Poe's verse but nursery 
jingles. Lowell, while allowing "three-fifths 
of him" to be "genius," precipitated a sharp 
rejoinder from his former friend by pronounc- 
ing the remainder fraction "sheer fudge." 
Nowadays, Professor Barrett Wendell, although 
naming Poe as one of the three distinctive 
American writers, condemns his work as " fan- 
tastic and meretricious throughout." He is ap- 
proached by Mr. Greenough White, with allit- 
erative compassion, as " poor Poe," " pessim- 
istic Poe," and " The Fall of the House of 
Usher " is preposterously discovered to be an 
allegory, shadowing autobiographically "the 
burial of conscience, and the ruin resulting 
therefrom." 

The present edition of Poe, with its commen- 
taries, makes some amends for past ill-treat- 
ment. Mr. Stedman had already shown in his 
" Poets of America" that he could appreciate 
Poe's verse with discrimination, and without 
patronage or pity. His estimate of the tales is 
judicious, weighing defects candidly, and mean- 
ing to make full recognition of Poe's intellec- 
tual genius. Occasionally a word seemed mis- 
applied, as when the sumptuous but incongruous 
furnishings of " The Assignation " are said to 
be " lauded " by the author and thus to evince 
his untutored taste. It seems gratuitous, too, 
to call " William Wilson " a " confession," and 
then urge that the author was not really so 
hardened in conscience as in this fiction he pre- 
tended to be. But the introduction to the tales, 
showing as it does a scholarly attempt to trace 
Poe's conceptions to sources in contemporary 
continental writers, must be accounted the work 
of an experienced and just-minded critic. The 
casual descriptive phrase, " a misfitted Amer- 
an," aptly expresses the sense of strangeness 
with which Poe has so long been regarded in 
the United States. The memoir, by Professor 
Woodberry, is excellent in its restraint. The 
story of the poet's life is told without com- 
ment, and the facts are left to make their own 
impression. How many authors, one asks, have 
to endure the printing of such intimate and un- 
braced correspondence as that here given (pp. 
52, 53), describing Poe's arrival in New York, 
almost penniless, with his consumptive wife, 
and his search for lodgings ? In this case the 
sartial friend, who considerately edits his sub- 
ject's correspondence, is absent. Every squalid 
and trivial detail is laid bare. 

The new edition is beautiful in paper and 
ypography, and the illustrations by Mr. Sterner 
are a distinct addition. Of course in all illus- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



139 



trations the artist's* conception is to be expected 
not the writer's ; for no draughtsman ever 
yet succeeded in exactly apprehending the wri- 
ter's idea, except the illustrator of " Trilby." 
But Mr. Sterner shows great sympathy with 
the weirdness and beauty that give tone to the 
tales. The three volumes already published 
include an unfamiliar sketch, " The Elk," their 
contents being subdivided ingeniously into ro- 
mances of death, old-world romance, tales of 
conscience, of natural beauty, of pseudo-science, 
of ratiocination, and of illusion. But perhaps 
the whole of Poe's work besides a dozen hu- 
morous and satirical sketches, in which the 
laughter is not genial but cool and sardonic 
may be said to fall into three groups : the im- 
aginative, the ratiocinative, and the critical, 
the first division including his verse and most 
of his tales. In his poetry Poe strove for novel 
stauzaic and melodic effects, in the conviction 
that the resources of English versification in 
this direction were not indicated by the few 
traditional forms. Believing also that the mu- 
sical element in verse is of great importance, 
he sought for sweet sounds, and used fully the 
devices of alliteration and the refrain. The 
melodious quality of his poetry is generally 
acknowledged, although difference of opinion 
exists concerning the relative value of sound 
in poetry. Those who delight in music for its 
own sake, however, will be slow to condemn his 
verse as too exclusively addressed to the ear. 
A more striking divergence of view is revealed 
on asking whether the poems are the outcome 
of personal feeling. Professor Woodberry, 
making Poe mainly a skilful artist, denies, in 
the " Life," that he ever experienced passion. 
So Mr. Stoddard : " There is a simulation of 
emotion in it [the poetry], but the emotion 
is as imaginary as the method by which it is 
sought to be conveyed is artificial." But Mr. 
Stedman, one is glad to note, takes the oppo- 
site view. The anecdote is well-known of Poe's 
quivering gratitude for unwonted kindness re- 
ceived at the hands of Mrs. Stanard, who in- 
spired the exquisite lyric " To Helen," and 
over whose grave the unforgetting boy used to 
brood by night. Many of Poe's published let- 
ters are written at so white a heat that the 
cold comma and period utterly fail to indicate 
the broken thought. He addressed his " Eu- 
reka " "to those who feel rather than to those 
who think," and this without the capacity him- 
self to feel ! He declared in the preface to his 
poems that poetry had been with him "not a pur- 
pose, but a passion," and some would doubtless 



explain this as the trick of a passionless man ! 
How can one receive the mournful cadences 
of " Ulalume," that dirge to a dead wife out 
of a mood rejecting the possibility of a newer 
love, and deny the poet's volcanic passion ? 
Even Mr. Woodberry, in his memoir, bears 
testimony to Poe's "ardent temperament," calls 
him "impetuous, self-willed, defiant," and 
quotes Mrs. Whitman concerning " his turbu- 
lent and passionate youth." In the words of 
his youthful poem, " Romance ": 

" And when an hour with calmer wings 
Its dawn upon my spirit flings 

That little time with lyre and rhyme 
To while away forbidden things ! 

My heart would feel to be a crime 
Unless it trembled with the strings." 

In his tales, Poe's imagination found wider 
expression than in his poems. True, the com- 
pass of his imaginative writing was restricted 
in the main to sombre and ghastly themes. Sev- 
eral causes were at work. Some account must 
be made of his pitiful struggles for subsistence 
in that America where, fifty years before the 
successful Mr. Howells gestured young men 
away from literature as a means of livelihood, 
the pen was indeed a feeble staff to lean one's 
whole weight upon. Poe knew " America, 
where, more than in any other region upon the 
face of the globe, to be poor is to be despised " 
(memoir, p. 57). An idealist, chained to hack- 
work for his daily bread, must in some way 
manifest the intrusion of penury into his 
dreams. The drink habit is the popular ex- 
planation of his wild creations, and it is not 
uncommon to adduce a finished tale, involving 
arduous artistic application, as the result of a 
night's debauch. But the principal cause of 
his " unearthliness " lay in the temperament 
which Poe had inherited from his forefathers. 
For good or bad, he was endowed with a mind 
that hovered by affinity over the grave, and 
dared to guess what might be immediately be- 
yond the phenomenon men call death. As re- 
lated in " Silence A Fable," he could not 
laugh with the Demon in the shadow of the 
tomb. But, restricted in scope as are the tales, 
their spell is undeniable. The writer has per- 
sonal acquaintance with at least one boy who 
again and again found himself caught away by 
these marvellous romances to a land of enchant- 
ment, from which the descent to earth was ab- 
rupt and dull. The boyish admiration has en- 
dured, now mingled with sober valuation of the 
consummate art that produces such results. 
The reader was not, so far as he is aware, at all 
morally unstrung, or even haunted with gob- 



140 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



lin visions, by reason of what has been termed 
Poe's morbid fiction. And, while not discover- 
ing a self-drawn portrait of the author in every 
murderer and maniac that crosses the page, he 
does find that most important ingredient of 
sustained literary renown the distilled essence 
of life. 

It has been truly said that Poe's tales dis- 
play the conceptions of an idealist, conveyed 
through the method of a realist. Nothing could 
be in greater contrast with the commonplace 
narratives of the modern school than the gor- 
geous finishings, the impossible incidents, the 
unparalleled characters of Poe's dreamy ro- 
mances. Yet the calculating accumulation of 
detail, each particular being easily credible be- 
cause so exactly stated, leads the reader step 
by step to cross the boundary of the actual, and 
to tabernacle for a time in a land of shadows. 
It is only at the close, awakening from his illu- 
sion, that he can perceive the constructive art 
which admits no useless circumstance, fully pre- 
pares for the conclusion, yet conceals the denoue- 
ment until it flashes out like a lightning-stroke. 

Few men of imagination are gifted in com- 
mensurate degree with the power of analytical 
reasoning. Poe exemplified his dictum that to 
reason well one must share the nature of both 
poet and mathematician. His ratiocinative 
power is shown in the five tales grouped in the 
present edition. It has been objected, and by 
Poe himself, that little credit is due for unrav- 
elling a web of one's own tangling ; but the 
point at issue is whether the fictitious situation 
is illustrative of actual affairs. " The Purloined 
Letter," for example, is a case under the ob- 
served law that the most obvious fact is fre- 
quently the fact perceived with the greatest 
difficulty. It will be remembered, too, that Poe 
proved his faculty of analysis when the answer to 
the problem was not predetermined by himself 
in solving numerous difficult ciphers, in fathom- 
ing the mystery surrounding the murder of 
Mary Rogers, in guessing from the first chap- 
ters the development of " Barnaby Rudge." 
Moreover, Poe possessed not merely analytical 
insight, but the ability to express in clear lan- 
guage the steps of his mental process. Doubt- 
less other spectators guessed the secret of Mael- 
zel's mechanical chess-player, but nobody else 
gave so logical and convincing an account of 
his reasoning. One is almost ready, before 
the clearness of his philosophical exposition, to 
say with him that no thought is beyond the 
reach of expression in language. 

The most remarkable outcome of his com- 



bined imaginative and ratiocinative power is 
the so-called prose poem " Eureka." Not in 
effect, say astronomers, what it purports to be 
an explanation of the material universe. 
" Nonsense ! " ejaculates the scientist, as he 
turns from the prefatory note : "I offer this 
book of Truths, not in its character of Truth- 
Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds in its 
Truth ; constituting it true." Yet the work 
remains the expression of a gigantic effort to 
go behind the most general laws of science, to 
account for the attraction of gravitation, to en- 
ter into the thought of God at the moment of 
creation, to reduce to a single impulse of the 
Divine Will the multitudinous phenomena of 
created things. The author requests that his 
work be judged after his death, as a poem only ; 
but nobody seems willing to oblige him. From 
the purely intellectual point of view, it will be 
granted that this attempt to furnish a founda- 
tion for Kepler and Laplace is at least ingen- 
ious and bold. If judged as a " prose poem," 
it takes rank among the striking products of 
the creative imagination. 

To Poe as critic, a few contemptuous words 
have commonly been thrown. He is said to 
have been unguided by principles, prejudiced, 
ferocious. It will be acknowledged that, with 
a fine native appreciation for good writing, he 
lacked the judicial temperament. He was liable 
to be swayed by his personal likes and dislikes. 
According to the editor of the once popular 
" Graham's Magazine," " No man with more 
readiness would soften a harsh expression at 
the request of a friend." But that Poe had re- 
flected upon the principles of composition, his 
several well-known essays on the subject abund- 
antly prove. His definition of poetry as the 
rhythmical creation of beauty, having its effect 
in elevating excitement of the soul, stands side 
by side with a score of other similar though 
partial statements, which must serve us while 
we await the perfect definition. Poe tested 
poetry by reading it aloud. He ascribed the 
varied musical effects of verse to the principle 
of equality. He opposed allegory and humor 
in poetry, thought the Greek drama manifestly 
the outgrowth of a cruder age, and the older 
English poetry over-praised because of its an- 
tiquity. He corrected Coleridge's distinction 
between fancy and imagination, showing that 
neither faculty truly creates. Among the qual- 
ities that he was accustomed to praise, in crit- 
ical consideration of poetry, were truth or nat- 
uralness, imagination, rhythmic effect, melody, 
force, grace, abandon, and what he called keep- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



141 



ing, or propriety of treatment. In fiction, as in 
verse, originality was the quality placed high- 
est, then constructive ability, imagination, and 
" the minor merits of style," meaning rhetor- 
ical and grammatical accuracy. 

In the application of his criticism, Poe 
praised Bulwer, Dickens, Scott, Moore, Cole- 
ridge, Tennyson. He placed Longfellow at the 
head of American poets, and Bryant second in 
rank. Hawthorne was warmly welcomed, long 
before the populace had discovered his merits. 
Lowell, before his witty characterization of Poe 
in the "Fable for Critics," was defended against 
an attack of Blackwood as " one of the noblest 
of our poets." Bayard Taylor, Margaret Ful- 
ler, and Mrs. Osgood are hailed as accessions 
to letters. But Emerson, Carlyle, and the tran- 
scendentalists generally, were beyond the ro- 
mancer's sympathetic reach. In reading the 
long list of good, bad, and indifferent authors 
treated, one's chief wonder is not that the critic 
was ferocious, as he occasionally was, but that 
he found so much to commend in what time 
has adjudged a wilderness of mediocrity. To 
the women poets of America, in particular, he 
was uniformly kind, not blind. He was so far 
influenced by the " Edinburgh Review " as to 
hold that the merits of a literary work might 
be left to speak for themselves, but that the 
cause of good writing would be best sustained 
by a rigorous exposure of defects, with little 
regard to the feelings of the author. No fair- 
minded man, reading the whole of Poe's criti- 
cism, can doubt that he had at heart the dig- 
nity and permanence of American letters. His 
defects were defects of temperament. 

The most prominent attack made by Poe as 
critic was upon Longfellow, whom he indi- 
rectly accused of plagiarism. With his wor- 
ship of originality, he had a mania for expos- 
ing what he deemed imitation ; and it must be 
allowed that, although his parallels are not 
always convincing, he rarely makes a charge 
without adducing his evidence. In the case 
of Longfellow, the discussion was lengthened 
through a well-meant defence by one of the 
friends of the gentle Cambridge poet. Poe 
really admired Longfellow's genius, praised his 
artistic skill and ideality, and ranked him, as 
has been said, at the head of American poets. 
In his article on the drama, Poe says : 
" Throughout ' The Spanish Student,' as well 
as throughout the other compositions of its au- 
thor, there runs a very obvious vein of imita- 
tion. We are perpetually reminded of some- 
thing we have seen before some old acquaint- 



ance in manner or matter ; and even when the 
similarity cannot be said to amount to plagiar- 
ism, it is still injurious to the poet in the good 
opinion of him who reads." If we turn to the 
delicate and sympathetic estimate of Mr. Sted- 
man, we shall find him saying, before claiming 
for Longfellow the credit of a distinctive tone, 
or manner of treatment : " Reviewing our sum- 
mary of his work, I observe that each of his 
best known efforts has led to the mention of 
prose or verse by some other hand which it re- 
sembles. In view of the possible inference, we 
may now ask, Was Longfellow, then, with his 
great reputation and indisputable hold upon 
our affections, not an original poet ? It must 
be acknowledged at the outset that few poets 
of his standing have profited more openly by 
examples that suited their tastes and purposes. 
The evidence of this is seen not merely in three 
or four, but in a great number, of his produc- 
tions." To quote once more from Mr. Gosse: 
" Originality and greatness are precisely the 
qualities Longfellow lacks." It appears from 
this collation of passages that the three critics, 
differing as they do in emphasis, have in mind 
one and the same fact. 

What are the grounds on which this unique 
writer, now enjoying a renascence of his fame, 
may rest a claim to genius ? We recognize 
with him that " perseverence is one thing, 
genius quite another." But to define genius is 
a desperate task. Still, among its trusty marks 
may be named intensity, a junction at some 
point with the infinite, and permanence of 
power. These three qualities are revealed in 
the work of Poe. Into his best writing he 
poured the whole of his life, containing springs 
of feebleness as well as of might, which rose 
from sources beyond his contriving. Such as 
it was, his inmost and hottest soul was concen- 
trated upon the work of his hand. His thought 
joined too with the infinite and the immortal. 
Although pausing long at the brink of the 
grave, and noting too carefully the repulsive 
details of worm and shroud, it welcomed the 
life that is in death the restful escape from 
" the fever called ' Living.' ' The present 
publication is testimony that Poe's hold upon 
men is unweakened. Wrapped within those 
imaginative legends lies the touch that still 
moves, if but to shudder. Here is a man whose 
swelling ambition strove to do infinite things 
upon a finite stage. Let us accept him as a 
child of genius, and enshrine him forever as an 
eminent figure in the literature of our nation. 

D. L. MAULSBY. 



142 



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[March 1, 



ART IN PRIMITIVE GREECE.* 



The two volumes on the Art of Primitive 
Greece are the beginning of the end of what 
must be considered the most complete and 
thorough history of ancient art ever written. 
Many years ago Georges Perrot (aided by 
Charles Chipiez) began the monumental task 
of gathering up and sifting all the material of 
ancient art and putting it together in sequen- 
tial and chronological form. It was in 1882 
that the first volumes, treating of Egyptian art, 
appeared ; and since then we have followed M. 
Perrot, trusting to his knowledge, sagacity, 
and judgment, through the arts of the Chal- 
daeans, Assyrians, Persians, and all the coast 
people of Asia Minor. At last he has brought 
us to Greece his objective point from the 
start. For he told us in his first book that 
" beyond the obelisks and pyramids of Egypt, 
beyond the towers of Chaldsea and the domes 
of Nineveh, the lofty colonnades of Persepolis, 
the fortresses and rock-cut tombs of Phrygia 
and Lycia, beyond the huge ramparts of the 
cities of Syria, we shall never cease to perceive 
on the horizon the sacred rock of the Athenian 
Acropolis." Greece, to M. Perrot, furnished 
the climax of all ancient art ; but it must not 
be inferred that the preceding volumes on 
Egyptian and Oriental art are merely introduc- 
tory to this climax. On the contrary, each 
volume is in itself a complete statement of its 
subject an exhaustive array of all the facts 
and a careful considering of all the theories. 

The series begins with the beginning in 
Egypt, and is designed to end with the Roman 
art of Marcus Aurelius. The complete work 
is to cover fifteen or sixteen volumes. Twelve 
of them are now published, and, judging from 
these, the statement that they form the best 
history of ancient art ever written is not a rash 
one. No historian of art has ever covered so 
much ground in so scholarly a manner as Georges 
Perrot. Winckelmann, Schnaase, Woltmann 
and Woermann, Reber, never had adequate 
knowledge to start with, never had breadth of 
view to carry with, never had aesthetic taste to 
judge with. M. Perrot possesses all of these 
qualities, and what must be somewhat hu- 
miliating to those who hug the idea that only 
Germany can produce historians he is a 
Frenchman. It seems to be thought in some 
quarters that however clumsy and dull a plod- 

* HISTORY OF ART IK PRIMITIVE GREECE: MYCENIAN 
ART. From the French of Georges Perrot and Charles Chip- 
ez. In two volumes. New York : A. C. Armstrong & Son. 



der the German may be he is wonderfully 
thorough and accurate ; and that the easy style 
of the Frenchman argues a superficial view 
of questionable facts. However well-founded 
that idea may be as regards theology and phil- 
osophy, it is not well-founded as regards science, 
letters, archaeology, and art. In taste, judg- 
ment, accuracy, and perspicacity, the French- 
man is to be trusted ; and these books by 
Georges Perrot are warrant for saying so. They 
are the most modern, but not the first, instance 
of French scholarship. We shall wait a long 
time before any German or Italian or English- 
man equals them. 

Nevertheless, the reading of these last vol- 
umes on Mycenian art causes a shade of dis- 
appointment. When a writer would do some- 
thing " very fine," he is likely to overshoot the 
mark ; and M. Perrot evidently intended his 
treatment of Greek art to be convincing to the 
last degree. He begins and ends with a theory, 
and one wonders at times whether he is not 
straining facts to make them square with the 
theory. In brief, notwithstanding great cau- 
tion and a putting of all the pros and cons, M. 
Perrot believes with Schliemann in Troy and 
Mycenae, in the ancestors of the Greeks start- 
ing there 2000 years B.C., in the growth of 
Greek art from this Mycenian art ; he believes 
in the time-honored and somewhat fallacious 
theory of evolution. It cannot be said that his 
theory is impossible or even improbable. In- 
deed, it is made quite plausible ; and yet one 
may question whether it is the archaeologist's or 
historian's business to theorize to such an extent. 
Groping in the dark of the past, perhaps the 
best that one could do would be to emphasize 
the facts so that they may be used as guide- 
posts hereafter. These hypotheses may be only 
card-houses to be knocked over. The mound 
upon which Troy is supposed to have rested 
contains three strata, each one reflective of a 
different stage of civilization. From that we 
have the theory that the stone-age man of the 
first stratum was the lineal ancestor of the 
bronze-age Trojan of the third stratum. Let 
us see how it might have been. The city of 
St. Louis is destroyed by earthquake, buried, 
forgotten. Two thousand years hence it is dug 
up by archaeologists. They find three strata, 
showing remains of three different peoples. 
They first dig out the remains of a thirteen- 
story building, then a log hut, and under all 
they find mound-builders' pottery. Ergo, the 
present people of St. Louis must have evolved 
from their ancestors the Mound Builders ! 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



143 



M. Perrot, of course, draws no such absurd 
conclusion ; but one feels at times as though 
he had not given enough weight to the possi- 
bilities of invading and conquering hosts, and 
of the Greek people being formed not from 
any one race but from many races mingled. 
The 2Egean swarmed with all sorts of adven- 
turers in Mycenian days. Tribes came and 
went ; settlements were made, conquered, and 
re-made ; and who were the ancestors of the 
Greeks, we do not yet know. There is no cor- 
roborative evidence that the buildings, orna- 
ments, vases, and other remains that have been 
found at Troy and elsewhere, are Greek, except 
in some passages from the epic of Homer a 
record itself to be proven. There is not a line 
or scratch of writing, on clay or wall or stone, 
to indicate a Greek people. The only evidence 
lies in the remains themselves. It is true, these 
differ from all relics we now know of as being 
found on the shores of the eastern Mediterra- 
nean ; yet they have an affinity with oriental 
art that suggests the possibility of their pro- 
duction by a now-forgotten race that was not 
Greek at all. Again, the Mycenian pottery 
might have been only a commercial ware 
hawked about the Mediterranean by traders. 
It is found elsewhere than at Troy and My- 
cenae ; and when the diggings in Phoenicia equal 
those at Mycenae, it may be found in as large 
quantities. As for Schliemann and his discov- 
eries, he rendered great service to archaeology 
by his excavations, but his theory was formed 
before he began to dig. He started out to find 
Troy and Agamemnon's tomb, and he found 
them. Had he been seeking Aladdin's lamp 
he would have found it in the first junk-shop 
of the Mouski. 

But M. Perrot is not dogmatic in his theory. 
These volumes are really an elaborate and 
learned discussion of the question ; and if, 
finally, the leaning is toward Schliemann's con- 
clusions, it is not an arbitrary bias. If the value 
of the theory can be questioned, the manner in 
which it is put forth cannot. The critical and 
historical spirit pervades the discussion, and 
the truth is sought for. Aside from this the- 
ory, there is little to question or find fault with 
in the work. The opening chapter, on the 
country, is a close study of geography, soil, cli- 
mate, and all that, by a man who knows his 
Greece almost as well as he does his Paris. 
Greek genius is not accounted for except by 
saying that it cannot be accounted for, and M. 
Perrot accepts the Aryan theory of the Greeks 
populating Greece by land and by sea from the 



East. At the same time he thinks that " until 
proof is shown to the contrary, we are bound 
to recognize in the folk who fashioned them 
[stone implements found in Greece] the direct 
ancestors of the Greeks of history." In other 
words, Greece had its stone age, and stumbled 
up through ages of bronze and iron to Periclean 
splendor, notwithstanding the forefathers of the 
race came from the East. Perhaps so ; but it 
is not yet proven. 

Once out of the land of speculation and evo- 
lution, and describing art-remains before him, 
M. Perrot becomes an archaeologist again ; and 
his accounts of Troy, Tiryns, and Mycena3 are 
as intelligent and painstaking as possible. He 
thinks the evidence is for Hissarlik being the 
ancient site of Troy ; and that the tombs at 
Mycenae are those described by Pausanias. The 
domed tombs of Attica and at Orchomenos, 
the wall construction of the Athenian Acrop- 
olis, the remains found on the Greek islands, 
are all brought in to prove the prevalence of 
primitive modes of construction during the My- 
cenian civilization. The chapters on the gen- 
eral characteristics of Mycenian architecture, 
materials, gates, columns, mouldings, are ex- 
cellent ; and here M. Perrot's collaborator, M. 
Charles Chipiez, comes in with restorations of 
the tombs and walls most ingeniously wrought 
out and undoubtedly correct. 

In the second volume, M. Perrot decides 
against Schliemann's Homeric theory of tem- 
ples and incineration as not proven ; he does 
not give the origin of the architectural forms, 
thinks the Doric column did not come from 
Egypt but was evolved from the wooden struc- 
ture of the last Mycenian civilization, deals sen- 
sibly with what is left of the sculpture, paint- 
ing, and industrial arts including pottery, and 
ends with a chapter on the characteristics of the 
Mycenian period. Here at the last he returns 
to his theory, and finds a date for the heyday 
of Mycenian existence at 1500 B.C. The only 
outside evidence that supports the date comes 
from Egypt a questionable record of Egypt- 
ian commerce with the Greeks in that early pe- 
riod. The finding of Egyptian scarabs, sherds, 
pastes, and glasses, on the Greek islands and 
the mainland, does not confirm the record, since 
they probably came from Phrenicia. 

The translation of this work cannot be 
praised. Mr. I. Gonino, who has succeeded 
Mr. Walter Armstrong as translator of the 
series, has used the pruning knife " to slightly 
abridge the text in those portions that are some- 
what tumid with padding," and judging from 



144 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



his own "tumidity" he has not done it well. 
Moreover, though Mr. Gonino may understand 
French he does not know how to write flexible 
English. Such sentences as these are not in- 
frequent : " Nobody knows and never will 
know," " Colored stones which pleasure the 
eye," " We should doubtless have been justi- 
fied to infer," " So scanty a piece of informa- 
tion, however, cannot dispense us from devot- 
ing a special study," etc. Then the pedantry 
of " Hadriatic " and " Achylles," the angular- 
ity of " gracility " for slenderness, and the stu- 
pidity of " When the excavator tumbled about 
Grecian soil," etc., which might give one to 
understand that the excavator " tumbled " in- 
stead of the soil. But the book is welcome, 
and will live in spite of Mr. Gonino's English. 

JOHN C. VAN DYKE. 



HENRY OF NAVARRE.* 



On one side, biography touches the novel ; 
on the other, history. The interest may attach 
chiefly to the individuality of the subject and 
the romance of his personal development : this 
allies the book with fiction. But if the subject 
of the biography took strong hold of the life 
of his time, left his mark upon social and gov- 
ernmental institutions, the account of his career 
is naturally an intimate part of the history of 
his age and country. Henry IV. of France de- 
serves the latter method of treatment. His life 
furnishes material for more than enough cham- 
bering romances, it is true ; but the last twelve 
years of his life, filled with intense and benefi- 
cent activity, are more valuable to the student 
than all the rest, and belong to history in the 
best sense. 

The biographer of Henry of Navarre must 
depend largely on the Memoirs of Sully, and 
it is to be regretted that Mr. Blair should not 
have used more freely the latter part of that 
interesting record. Of his 300 pages, 204 are 
consumed before Henry becomes King of 
France, 63 pages are devoted to the following 
nine years, and but 32 pages to the last twelve 
years of his life. A more detailed analysis 
shows 130 pages given to events and persons 
not essential to the understanding of Henry's 
career as here outlined ; and of the remainder, 
nine pages to Beam and Henry's parentage 
and birth, twenty-one pages to his amours and 

* HENRY OF NAVARRE AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS. By 
Edward T. Blair. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. 



marital infelicities, about sixty to his military 
career, and sixty to miscellaneous details largely 
incidental or anecdotal. Of the last chapter, 
covering the most important period of the king's 
career, two and one-half pages only are given 
to the governmental reforms for which it is fa- 
mous, while ten pages go to amours and details 
of Henry's second marriage, three to personal 
anecdotes, one to Sully, five to his " grand de- 
sign," and three and one-half to the close of the 
king's life. 

This lack of proportion is a serious defect, 
from whatever point of view one regards Mr. 
Blair's work. Yet there is enough that is mer- 
itorious in it to make one wish that he had 
saved for a second and revised edition the typo- 
graphical luxury and wealth of illustration with 
which the publishers have equipped it. The 
style is straightforward, and in the main cor- 
rect, barring an occasional lapse such as " he 
was said to have translated" (p. 17), "thrown 
in the river " (p. 145), " each [Mayenne and 
Lorraine] claimed this honor for their sons " 
(p. 241), " to see if he could not arrange mat- 
ters " (p. 261), " I had to act marshal as re- 
garded the retreat " (p. 265). A few foreign 
barbarisms, as " reiter " for cavalry, " lanz- 
knechts " for lansquenets or infantry, " ruse," 
" croqued," " gabelle," would have been better 
omitted ; and with them " showed their hand " 
and " squabbled." 

Of course, like all who depend upon a few 
standard sources, Mr. Blair often closely ap- 
proaches the language of one of these without 
using quotation-marks. In some instances 
where Guizot has neglected to quote his source, 
Mr. Blair has doubtless used the same author- 
ity, so that the arrangement of his matter 
and even the language itself resemble Guizot. 
For instance, Blair, p. 25 : " Montmorency paid 
the greatest attention to the discipline of his 
troops." Guizot, IV., 335 : " The same man 
paid the greatest attention to the discipline and 
good condition of his troops." Blair, p. 28 : 
" The Bishop of Arras who was present offered 
to assist him. 'Gently, my lord of Arras,' 
said the Emperor, '. . .' Then he turned to 
Coligny, '. . .' He inquired after Henry II. 's 
health, and spoke of belonging to the house of 
France through his grandmother Mary of Bur- 
gundy." Guizot, IV., 250 : " The Bishop of 
Arras drew near to render him that service. 
' Gently, my lord of Arras,' said the Emperor 
- [quotation identical] . And then turning 
to Coligny he said [quotation identical]. He 
inquired with an air of interest after Henry II.'s 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



145 



health, and boasted of belonging himself also 
to the house of France through his grandmother 
Mary of Burgundy." Blair, p. 29 : "It was 
not long before the truce was broken, although 
it cost Coligny, who was a man of scrupulous 
honor, a struggle to do it." Guizot, IV., 250 : 
" And it was not long before this prognostica- 
tion was verified. ... It cost Coligny, who 
was a man of scrupulous honor, a great strug- 
gle to lightly break a truce he had just signed." 
Other instances are, Blair, pp. 25-6 : Guizot, 
IV., 236 ; Blair, 27 : Guizot IV., 245 ; Blair, 
29: Guizot, IV., 253 ; Blair, 31: Guizot, IV., 
260 ; Blair, 32 : Guizot, IV., 261 ; Blair, 97 : 
Guizot, IV., 392; Blair, 103: Guizot, IV., 
368 and 369. Perhaps the free use of sources, 
even in the absence of quotation-marks, should 
be understood as a matter of course in such 
works as this. 

An author has a right to be judged from his 
own point of view. Mr. Blair tells us that he 
was moved to undertake the biography of Henry 
of Navarre by a two-years residence in Beam, 
together with the consideration that there was 
so little accessible in English on the subject, 
and that he has been guided only by the desire 
to treat impartially what has been much dis- 
torted by partisans. However, there is consid- 
erable accessible in English as Sully's Mem- 
oirs, Guizot, Duruy, Kitchin, Baird's " Rise of 
the Huguenots," etc.; and a scholarly work sum- 
marizing what these and more original author- 
ities furnish on the life of Henry IV. is what 
is really needed. But Mr. Blair's " Henry of 
Navarre " lays no claim to scholarship. It cites 
no sources, it has not a single reference to au- 
thorities, it does not even make acknowledg- 
ment of indebtedness to the writers from whom 
the author has evidently drawn. Dates are not, 
indeed, an infallible mark of erudition, and we 
could dispense with a portion of them in many 
excellent works, but it is a bold innovation to 
omit them altogether. There are but three in 
this record of fifty years where events often lap 
and the narrator has occasion to reach ahead or 
turn back several years. Even in a popular 
work, such as this is intended to be "a brief 
description of one of the most interesting char- 
acters and periods in French history," - a 
moderate use of at least marginal dates, and a 
short list of standard authorities, would have 
been decidedly helpful. 

Looked at as a popular narrative which pre- 
sumes some knowledge of the period, Mr. Blair's 
work takes on a more favorable aspect. The 
elegant typography and the numerous illustra- 



tions constitute larger factors of the whole, and 
the tendency to piquancy is more pardonable. 
Yet here, too, there are serious defects. Often 
much is taken for granted. A personage ap- 
pears in action or reference, only to be formally 
introduced some pages later, or not at all. Per- 
sonages of the same name are not distinguished 
with enough care, and the same person is some- 
times referred to by different names without 
being identified. Thus Maximilien de Bethune, 
baron de Rosny, due de Sully, first appears un- 
announced on page 127 : " When Sully went 
to Henry III. to conclude an alliance between 
him and the King of Navarre "; while the next 
reference to him is 011 page 143 : " Even grave 
puritans like Rosny, afterwards Duke of Sully." 
This is not calculated to enlighten us, but the 
contrary ; for as he was only " afterwards Duke 
of Sully," how could the Sully of the previous 
reference be the same ? Throughout, the great 
minister is called, now Rosny, now Sully, now 
" Rosny afterwards Duke of Sully." So also 
with the Duke of Anjou, who is three different 
personages in the pages of the book, and, even 
when Henry III. is meant, is not identified, 
especially on page 122, where he is referred to 
as King of Poland, and in the next breath as 
Anjou, without any hint of how Anjou came 
to be king of Poland. Similar is the allusion 
to the " Seize," p. 214. Perhaps no precau- 
tions could prevent some confusion in the case 
of the numerous representatives of the Guise 
family ; but here, as elsewhere, a freer use of 
baptismal names in connection with the title 
would have helped matters. 

Mr. Blair has been impressed with the dif- 
ficulty of giving an unprejudiced view of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, and he has an 
evident desire to be fair. His epitome of the 
origin of the dreadful affair as " the accidental 
result of a conspiracy directed against the ad- 
miral, rather than an organized effort to exter- 
minate the Protestants " (p. 112), is undoubt- 
edly correct of the situation preceding the first 
attempt on Coligny's life, but after that a 
greater guilt was assumed by Catherine and 
her sons. However little they may have fore- 
seen or intended the ultimate results, the bur- 
den of infamy remaining upon them is great 
enough to justify the perpetual execrations 
of mankind. It would be interesting to know 
where Mr. Blair finds the evidence that " Prot- 
estant historians have agreed to pillory her 
[Catherine] for the benefit of posterity " (p. 
39). It may be true that a certain class of 
Sunday-School library books overdraw her 



146 



THE DIAL 



[March 1 



guilt ; but is there a standard historian who 
does not present the same view as Mr. Blair ? 
Guizot, Duruy, Kitchin, Baird, Steven, as 
well as the contemporaries Henry III. and Sal- 
viati, the papal nuncio, are in general accord 
with Mr. Blair. It does not seem that his 
charge of a conspiracy to blacken Catherine's 
character is justified. Aspersions like this, and 
that on page 85, " Protestant historians pre- 
tend to see in all this a deep-laid scheme to de- 
lude the Huguenots into a sense of security," 
ought to be supported by evidence. 

There is enough of value in Mr. Blair's work 
to make one regret profoundly that he should 
not have deliberated longer, and received more 
criticism, before printing in such sumptuous 
form. As in the case of the text, so with the 
fifty or more half-tone prints and photogravures 
accompanying it : most readers would be grat- 
ified to know the source and the artist of the 
originals. W. H. CARRUTH. 



A NEW ENGLAND 



The conscience of New England a half cen- 
tury ago demanded much of its votaries and 
adherents. The limitations which it set about 
human intelligence and activity were many and 
certain. Its intense assurance of its own com- 
pleteness and rectitude had its incommodities 
as well as its insights and rewards. To those 
who could acquiesce in its demands, it opened 
avenues to spiritual heights whence the out- 
look was large and superb, though the air might 
be somewhat thin for the health of daily life. 
At last, however, the burdens it imposed be- 
came too severe for a generation alive to much 
that was outside of its enclosed space, and the 
revolt began. 

It seems that valuable literatures usually be- 
gin with such revolts, and the stronger spirits, 
after considerable effort and some suffering, 
throw off the fetters no longer endurable, and 
rejoice in the larger freedom which they have 
won. There are always, however, sensitive souls 
who feel that they must break with the tradi- 
tions, but cannot find themselves wholly at 
home in the new and strange. Among the lat- 
ter must be counted such writers as Emily 
Dickinson, as well as the Concord recluse, 
William Ellery Channing, whose poems, when 
again and properly presented to the world, will 

* LETTERS OF EMILY DICKINSON. Edited by Mabel Loomis 
Todd. Boston : Roberts Brothers. 



doubtless receive a recognition which has thus 
far been denied them. What has been done 
for Emily Dickinson will assuredly be done for 
him, and the result is no more doubtful in his 
case than it has proved in hers. 

Miss Dickinson's letters make an admirable 
complement to her poems. In her early years 
she was a copious correspondent, and during 
her school-days she had a great reputation as a 
writer of long, and, as we can readily surmise, 
singularly original compositions. The change 
in her epistolary style, with her growth in years 
and experience, is worthy of notice. The dif- 
fuse and minute letter- writing becomes con- 
densed to a remarkable degree, epigrammatic, 
and mystical. Her correspondents were many, 
and include such names as Dr. Holland, Sam- 
uel Bowles, Helen Hunt Jackson, and, of 
course, Mrs. Todd, the devoted editor of these 
" Letters," and her guide and mentor, Colonel 
Higginson. 

Not quite able to avail herself of the wider 
scope which the New England revolt was dis- 
closing to her, and incapable of satisfaction 
with the creeds and moods in which she had 
been brought up, Emily Dickinson retired into 
herself, and found solace and serenity in her 
vivid apprehensions of the truth, and the man- 
ifestations of that truth in Nature, which be- 
came to her a symbol easily read and trans- 
parent to the meaning which it contained. Her 
correspondence is replete with a gay and deli- 
cate humor ; the recluse was full of wit and of 
gentle happiness with her friends. Perhaps 
she did not take herself and her abandonment 
of the world with too much seriousness ; prob- 
ably she saw something of its humorous aspect, 
and would gladly enough have had the strength 
to share the generous life outside ; the effort, 
doubtless, was too great, and the sympathetic 
appreciation not sufficiently vigorous and in- 
sistent. The letters are free from that strain 
of morbidness which we sometimes find in her 
poems, especially in those dealing with the 
subject of death and its dark accompaniments. 
Here we have such exquisite passages as this : 
" The bed on which he came was enclosed in a large 
casket, shut entirely, and covered from head to foot 
with the sweetest flowers. He went to sleep from the 
village church. Crowds came to tell him good night, 
choirs sang to him, pastors told how brave he was 
early-soldier heart. And the family lowered their heads, 
as the reeds the wind shakes." 

As the introspective habit grew upon her, 
every incident of a life simple and unvarying 
in the extreme became touched with an illu- 
mination that her thoughts and mood poured 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



147 



forth. " A letter," she says, " always feels to 
me like immortality, because it is the mind 
alone without corporeal friend." A burst of 
severe weather in the spring gives rise to this : 
*' The apple blossoms were slightly disheart- 
ened, yesterday, by a snow-storm, but the birds 
encouraged them all that they could and how 
fortunate that the little ones had come to cheer 
their damask brethren." Here is a letter entire : 
" The little package of Ceylon arrived iu fragrant 
safety, and Caliban's ' elust'ring filberds ' were not so 
luscious nor so brown. Honey in March is blissful as 
inopportune, and to caress the bee a severe temptation, 
but was not temptation the first zest ? We shall seek 
to be frugal with our sweet possessions, though their en- 
ticingness quite leads us astray, and shall endow Austin 
[Emily Dickinson's brother], as we often do, after a 
parched day. For how much we thank you. Dear ar- 
rears of tenderness we can never repay till the will's 
great ores are finally sifted; but bullion is better than 
minted things, for it has no alloy. Thinking of you with 
fresher love, as the Bible boyishly says, ' New every 
morning and fresh every evening.' " 

The unexpected abounds in these letters, as 
the reader of the poems will anticipate. " To 
make even Heaven more heavenly is within the 
aim of us all." " I shall bring you a handful 
of Lotus next, but do not tell the Nile." " Not 
what the stars have done, but what they are to 
do, is what detains the sky." " Changelessness 
is Nature's change." She lavishes her verse 
upon her correspondents. 

" Take all away from me 

But leave me ecstasy, 

And I am richer then 

Than all my fellow-men. 

Is it becoming me 

To dwell so wealthily, 

When at my very door 

Are those possessing more, 

In boundless poverty ? " 

Mrs. Todd says : " It is impossible to con- 
ceive that any sense of personal isolation, or 
real loneliness of spirit, because of the absence 
of humanity from her daily life, could have op- 
pressed a nature so richly endowed." And 
again : " Emily Dickinson's method of living 
was so simple and natural an outcome of her 
increasingly shy nature, a development so per- 
fectly in the line of her whole constitution, that 
no far-away and dramatic explanation of her 
quiet life is necessary to those who are capable 
of apprehending her." Notwithstanding the 
authoritative source from which this statement 
comes, many readers will hold a different opin- 
ion. No doubt the adjustment of Emily Dick- 
inson to her environment grew in difficulty, and, 
as often happens in such cases, the effective 
help was not at hand. The extent of her cor- 
respondence, and the character of much of it, 



indicate how deeply she felt the need and how 
warmly she would have welcomed the possibil- 
ity of closer relations with her fellows. The 
nun and the saint make a figure delicate and 
unique ; but the poet with something real to 
say to mankind deserves our larger apprecia- 
tion- Louis J. BLOCK. 



STUDIES IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.* 

One of the most exceedingly live " questions of 
the day " the pressing and often distressing prob- 
lem of municipal government is treated in some 
of its more salient phrases in four interesting books 
of recent publication. The city is the form which 
society is inceasingly assuming. The rural mode 
of life, once so controlling of all social facts, is 
more and more sinking to a secondary place. When 
the war of the American Revolution ended, only about 
three per cent of our people lived in what might be 
called cities ; and the metropolis, Philadelphia, was 
a town of only some forty thousand inhabitants. 
In fact, in the modern sense America had no cities 
at that time. The great bulk of the people lived 
in little villages or on solitary farms. To-day nearly 
a third of the population of the United States is 
found in cities of over eight thousand inhabitants, 
and ten per cent live in the four cities of New York, 
Chicago, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia. And the rela- 
tive preponderance of the cities is steadily increas- 
ing. In Europe this proportion is yet more striking- 
To-day about three-fourths of the people of Scot- 
land are townspeople, as against one-fourth at the 
opening of the present century. In England one- 
third of the whole population is in towns of over one 
hundred thousand inhabitants, and nearly another 
third in towns of from ten thousand to one hundred 
thousand. In France, the town population is about 
a third; in Germany, fully two-fifths. And in all 
these countries as well as in every other European 
state, the population of towns and cities is increas- 
ing much more rapidly than is that of the rural 
districts. 

These simple facts are exceedingly significant. 
They show that the modern form of life is distinc- 
tively urban. And they at once explain why it is 
that the important questions relating to the admin- 
istration of cities have only very recently emerged 
into the public consciousness. But we in the United 
States have suddenly found that we are confronted 
in the management of municipal affairs with diffi- 

* MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN. By Al- 
bert Shaw. New York : The Century Co. 

CITY GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. By Alfred 
R. Conkling. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 

OUR FIGHT WITH TAMMANY. By Rev. Charles H. Park- 
hurst, D.D. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 

THE Boss. An essay upon the art of governing American 
cities. By Henry Champernowne. New York : George H. 
Richmond & Co. 



148 



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[March 1, 



culties which threaten our prosperity, our comfort, 
our safety, and our dignity, far more than is the 
case with any matters of national policy. The pub- 
lic debt of the United States in 1894 was $12.57 
per capita. The public debt of the city of New 
York at the same time was about $70 per capita. 
In the palmiest days of the spoils system in the civil 
service of the United States, the worst condition of 
things was purity itself in comparison with the rot- 
tenness of New York under Tweed or Croker. For 
these and many other reasons, it is getting to be a 
matter of very great importance that the various 
questions involved in the social problem which we 
call the city should be clearly understood. 

Dr. Albert Shaw has given us an exhaustive study 
of British municipalities. He sketches their devel- 
opment, especially in recent times, analyzes the 
methods and principles of the municipal code, and 
then exhibits the working of these methods by de- 
tailed accounts of typical cities Glasgow, Man- 
chester, Birmingham, London. There is a valuable 
closing chapter on metropolitan tasks and problems, 
and the appendix contains the English municipal 
code, with some other interesting material. The 
work is done very thoroughly, and the subject is 
treated with that breadth of view and fulness of 
knowledge which we have learned to expect from 
this writer. 

In studying these British cities, one is struck with 
two things: the number of services undertaken by 
the municipal authorities, and the business-like effi- 
ciency with which the public business is transacted. 
The former is quite socialistic, the latter is decid- 
edly un-American. It has been said that the test 
of the value of any system of city government is 
what it does for the people, how well it is done, and 
what it costs. Tried by these standards, the gov- 
ernment of Glasgow, for instance, shows some strik- 
ing contrasts with conditions sufficiently familiar 
here. That city has undertaken some services which 
we either leave undone or relegate to private enter- 
prise. A sanitary wash-house cleanses and disin- 
fects clothing, carpets, and the like, from any dwell- 
ing in which a case of contagious disease occurs. 
And while any such dwelling is undergoing disin- 
fection, a poor family may have quarters in a public 
lodging-house provided for that purpose. The city 
" pest-house " in our country is usually a loathsome 
place, and people are quite apt to conceal contagious 
cases in order to save the patient from the horrors, 
real or imagined, of the hospital. Glasgow, in lieu 
of a pest-house, has an estate of thirty acres, in 
which a series of pleasant cottages afford the great- 
est comfort for both patients and nurses. The ac- 
commodations are so pleasant, and so far beyond 
what could be had at home, that instead of hiding 
a case of contagion the friends are eager to give no- 
tice of it. And this way of doing things turns out 
to be good policy. Epidemics in Glasgow are easily 
kept under control. The city also provides com- 
modious public baths, which charge a nominal 



fee. The average number of bathers is fifteen 
hundred a day, and the results to the public health 
and comfort can easily be conjectured. Public 
wash-houses enable a woman for two pence an 
hour to use the latest and most effective appliances, 
and within that time easily to complete a family 
washing. The gas supply and the water supply both 
belong to the city. The price of gas has been grad- 
ually reduced from $1.14, the price charged prior to 
the transfer to the city, to the present rate of sixty 
cents per thousand feet. And at the same time the 
works have been extended and improved, and an 
ample sinking-fund provided which will pay off the 
debt incurred in the purchase when it falls due. 
The street railways are owned and operated by the 
city. Originally, the city built the lines and leased 
their use to a private company for a series of years, 
on terms exceedingly favorable to the public. When 
the lease expired, in 1894, the city decided there- 
after to operate the lines on its own account. It has 
been able, in doing this, to provide a rate of fares 
of one cent per half-mile in the crowded part of the 
city, with longer runs for two cents ; and at the 
same time to reduce materially the hours of em- 
ployees. These and other public undertakings in 
Glasgow Mr. Shaw thinks are managed with great 
economy and efficiency. 

The first question, perhaps, which occurs to an 
American is : Cannot the same things be done here ? 
But the answer will suggest itself quite as promptly : 
No, it is utterly out of the question. To enlarge 
the services of our American municipality to take 
on the gas supply, to run the street-car system as 
the property of the city would merely mean so 
many more " jobs " for political adventurers. We 
are sufficiently familiar now with a police force 
which is run for the benefit of ward heelers and 
thugs. Imagine Tammany methods applied to the 
selection of street-car conductors ! Imagine " fine 
work " at the primaries rewarded with a place as 
motorman on a grip-car ! In short, the question 
whether it is or is not good policy for the commun- 
ity to undertake further duties for the general wel- 
fare, is simply not a question at all under existing 
conditions. It is a waste of time to discuss it. 
When we have learned how to get our present mu- 
nicipal machinery out of the hands of the corrupt 
gang who have so deeply disgraced the American 
name in every one of our leading cities, then, and 
not until then, will be time to think of other uses 
for the machinery. 

Another striking contrast which Mr. Shaw's pages 
suggest is the relative economy and efficiency of the 
English system as compared with the enormous 
waste and poor results in America. Is republican- 
ism a failure? Are Americans lacking in political 
ability? Has the greed for wealth absorbed our 
public spirit? We shall hardly answer these ques- 
tions in the affirmative. The triumphs of the repub- 
lic in securing and maintaining public order have 
been too great for us to admit that the nation which 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



149 



created the Federal Constitution, which has been 
made stronger by rebellion and richer in spite of the 
vast destruction of property caused by war and eman- 
cipation, is not able to grapple with almost any diffi- 
culties. Democracy, we have learned, sometimes 
is very sluggish at getting an idea into its head ; 
but when the idea once gets there it never gets out. 
We shall get the municipal idea in time. 

The form of government of British cities is rad- 
ically different from that to which the present ten- 
dency in this country is giving shape. In Great 
Britain the mayor is little more than a figure-head. 
All power is wielded by an elective council. Here, 
experience leads us to place no expei'ience whatever 
in a city council, but to vest enormous power, to- 
gether with full responsibility, in the mayor. Cur- 
iously enough, our democracy is leading to a consti- 
tutional Caesarism in city affairs. Mr. Shaw thinks 
that we might with profit adopt the European 
method. Perhaps so. But it would be squarely 
against the current of our political experience and 
our political thinking. 

We set out a hundred years ago with a buoyant 
belief in the entire sufficiency of a representative 
legislature. We had been able to rid ourselves of 
a king, and of his detestable myrmidons, the col- 
onial governors. We were free. And with our 
Congress and our legislature, we expected to be 
happy. But the student of American institutions is 
confronted with no more obtrusive fact than the steady 
growth of distrust in our legislative bodies. Power 
after power has been shorn from them. It has 
been learned that they are repositories of neither 
wisdom nor integrity. And the people have learned, 
after all, to depend on the executive for protection. 
Accordingly the governors of our states have been 
more and more entrusted with checks on the legis- 
lative branch. And in like manner the common 
councils of our cities have had their functions in 
large part transferred to the mayor. In Philadel- 
phia, in Brooklyn, in New York, responsibility has 
been centred in the executive. And now the same 
thing, already largely embodied in the general stat- 
ute of Illinois, is proposed to be carried to its log- 
ical end in Chicago. If the bill of the Civic Fed- 
eration becomes law, the common council will be- 
come an innocuous body. 

The reason for this peculiar tendency in our 
American democracy is plain enough. For corrupt 
or incompetent action by the city council, it is im- 
practicable to decide whom to hold accountable. 
One might as well try to tip over a sand hill with 
a pistol bullet. But if the mayor has the power to 
make things right, and things are wrong, everybody 
knows who is at fault. 

There is another ground for considering the 
American plan as, on the whole, better than the 
English. City government is mainly administrative 
business, and for administration, a single head is 
much better than many heads. It is just as in the 
management of an army. One poor general, in- 



vested with the supreme command, is much more 
likely to succeed than several good officers with co- 
ordinate authority. Everybody's business is no- 
body's business. Two heads may be better than 
one for deliberation ; they are much worse than one 
for action. English democracy is at just about the 
point we had reached a hundred years ago. Wait 
until in England the slums vote and " the machine " 
becomes a power. Committees, councils, and om- 
nipotent parliaments will be less in favor then. Of 
course, municipal reform cannot be secured by tink- 
ering with charters. The personal equation can 
never be disregarded. The main question must al- 
ways be, how to secure for the public service men 
of high character. But that is hopeless, for any 
length of time while the spoils system is allowed to 
remain, while it is possible for an irresponsible 
many-headed body like a city council to bestow 
franchises and contracts, and while membership in 
such a body consumes a large amount of time. 
There should be two classes of city officials ex- 
perts, who give their whole time to their public du- 
ties, who have safe tenure and are well paid ; and 
overseers, who are periodically elected, have no sal- 
ary, are not obliged to take much time from their 
business, who can advise and can determine only 
general matters of policy. 

We have but scant space left for the other books 
in our group. Mr. Conkling's volume on " City 
Government in the United States " is a very con- 
venient manual of the structure of American city 
governments. He analyzes the functions of a mu- 
nicipality, and shows how our principal cities deal 
with them. For a condensed view of these methods, 
nothing better can be found. A comparison of the 
British and American systems can readily be made 
in the pages of these two books. 

Dr. Parkhurst's story of the recent fight with 
Tammany is a discouraging thing not because it 
is not the record of success, but because it shows 
too plainly how completely the people allow their 
affairs to fall into the hands of scoundrels. It is a 
quarter of a century since the Tweed gang was 
driven from New York. How long will it be be- 
fore the Parkhurst crusade will have to be re- 
peated? Is the party "boss" the vital feature of 
our public life? So Mr. Champernowne, in his 
trenchant essay on "The Boss," implies. The work 
is a satire, in the manner of Machiavelli's "Prince" 
very crisp and droll. And there can be no man- 
ner of doubt that it is the perfect organization and 
ready obedience of Tammany Hall that made Tweed 
and Croker so potent for evil. But perhaps we can 
learn something from Tammany. Definite and 
permanent organization for honest municipal pur- 
poses, quite irrespective of high tariff or free silver, 
may do as much to secure a real reform as it has 
done to fill the pockets of blackmailers and swind- 
ling contractors. 

HARRY PRATT JUDSON. 



150 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



RECENT ENGLISH POETRY.* 



The opening piece in Mr. Watson's " Odes and 
Other Poems " is a personal tribute to Mr. R. H. 
Hutton, and ends with this stanza : 

" And not uncrowned with honours ran 
My days, and not without a boast shall end ! 
For I was Shakespeare's countryman ; 
And wert thou not my friend ? " 

" The Spectator " has subsequently expressed its 
editorial opinion that Mr. Watson is the greatest 
of English poets now living. This bit of log-roll- 
ing offers a very neat illustration of a familiar pas- 
sage in the Book of Koheleth (XI., 1). If it were 
not for this and other similarly preposterous opin- 
ions of the poet's ill-advised admirers, the critic 
might be spared the unpleasant task of pointing 
out the defects of Mr. Watson's verse, and be con- 
tent with dwelling upon its many admirable quali- 
ties. But the fact that any considerable number of 
persons are capable of speaking and writing with 
" The Spectator's " utter lack of the sense of per- 
spective, the fact that Mr. Watson has been seri- 
ously put forward as a possible successor to the 
laurel-wreath of. Tennyson, although such men as 
Mr. Swinburne and Mr. William Morris are still 
alive, compels a very pointed direction of the atten- 
tion to his shortcomings first of all, to the intol- 
erable self-consciousness that pervades a large part 
of his verse, then to the trivial and commonplace char- 
acter of much of his material, to the frequent met- 
rical blemishes, and to the elephantine gambolling 
which he sometimes mistakes for playfulness. All 
of these matters are illustrated in the volume before 
us ; the self-consciousness in a dozen places, the 
triviality in almost as many, the rhythmical stum- 
bling in such a hexameter as 
"For had I not dwelt where Nature but prattled familiar 



and the ungraceful capering in "A Study in Con- 
trasts." Having reluctantly said this much of Mr. 
Watson's failures, we turn with the more pleasure 
to the pages in which he appears as his nobler and 
better self, to the pages in which patriotism in- 
spires this fine invocation to the Power that shapes 
the destinies of empires : 

" Purge and renew this England, once so fair, 
When Arthur's Knights were armed with nobleness, 
Or Alfred's wisdom poised the sacred scales ; 

*ODES AND OTHER POEMS. By William Watson. New 
York : Macmillan & Co. 

IN RUSSET AND SILVER. By Edmund Gosse. Chicago : 
Stone & Kimball. 

BALLADS AND SONGS. By John Davidson. Boston : Cope- 
land & Day. 

A BOOK OF SONG. By Julian Sturgis. New York : Long- 
mans, Green, & Co. 

WINDFALL AND WATERDRIFT. By Auberon Herbert. New 
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

SONGS FROM DREAMLAND. By May Kendall. New York : 
Longmans, Green, & Co. 

THE CROSS OF SORROW. A Tragedy in Five Acts. By 
William Akerman. New York : Macmillan & Co. 



Yea, and in later times, when Liberty, 

Her crowned and crosiered enemies combating, 

Stood proudlier 'stablished by a false King's fall, 

Mighty from Milton's pen and Cromwell's sword, 

Terribly beauteous, passionately just, 

Seared with hell's hate, and in her scars divine," 

or to the page that contains this impressive warn- 
ing for those who would bring about, through vio- 
lence, a new and fairer birth of things : 

"A moment's fantasy, the vision came 

Of Europe dipped in fiery death, and so 
Mounting reborn, with vestal limbs aglow, 

Splendid and fragrant from her bath of flame. 

It fleeted : and a phantom without name, 

Sightless, dismembered, terrible, said : ' Lo, 
/ am that ravished Europe men shall know 

After the morn of blood and night of shame.' " 

It would be difficult to quarrel with a book that 
is so exquisite a piece of mechanical workmanship 
as Mr. Gosse's new volume, and the contents give 
no occasion for such a mishap. Mr. Gosse is, like 
Mr. Watson, only a minor poet, but his talent is as 
evident as its nurture has been delicate. Starting 
upon his poetical path as an imitator of Mr. Swin- 
burne, he has gradually found a voice for himself, 
and the transition from "On Viol and Flute" to 
"In Russet and Silver" has been a passage from 
crudity to mellowness, from exuberance to restraint. 

" Life, that, when youth was hot and bold, 
Leaped up in scarlet and in gold, 
Now walks, by graver hopes possessed, 
In russet and in silver dressed." 

There is a slight element of pose in the affectation 
of advancing years so frequently recurrent in this 
sheaf of songs for the author is not so very aged, 
after all and the mine dimittis strain does not fit 
very well with the abundant vitality we know him 
still to possess. But assuming, for the nonce, the 
standpoint which we cannot help thinking to have 
been unduly anticipated, we must say that Mr. Gosse 
sings with exceptional grace of the moods and mem- 
ories of old age. 

" In youth our fiery lips were fed 

With fruit in lavish waste ; 
We watch it now hung o'er our head, 
And, now, at length can taste. 

" The boisterous pleasures of the boy 

Their own deep rapture steal ; 
I ask no longer to enjoy, 
But ah ! to muse and feel." 

Such charming discourse de senectute might be mul- 
tiplied indefinitely from these pages, but we must 
turn to the more objective aspects of the volume. 
Sympathy for others, particularly for those " in dis- 
grace with fortune and men's eyes," is always a mark 
of the true poet, and we find it in plentiful measure 
here. How deep is this note in such a poem as 
" Neurasthsenia," with its compassionate sense of 
the way in which some hapless lives are warped 
from the very hour of birth. 

" Curs'd from the cradle and awry they come, 

Masking their torment from a world at ease ; 
On eyes of dark entreaty, vague and dumb, 
They bear the stigma of their souls' disease. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



151 



41 Bewildered by the shadowy ban of birth, 

They learn that they are not as others are, 
Till some go mad, and some sink, prone to earth, 
And some push stumbling on without a star ; 

" And some, of sterner mould, set hard their hearts, 

To act the dreadful comedy of life, 
And wearily grow perfect in their parts ; 
But all are wretched and their years are strife." 

The figures of the flaming torch handed on from 
runner to runner, and of the sacred flame kept 
alight by successive ministrants, have always been 
favorite symbols with the poets who have sought to 
sing of the sacredness of their art. Mr. Gosse's 
"Alere Flammam " is the latest of a long line of lyrics 
upon these themes, and by no means the least beau- 
tiful. We quote the last two of the four stanzas: 

" Ah ! so, untouched by windy roar 

Of public issues loud and long, 
The Poet holds the sacred door, 

And guards the glowing coal of song ; 
Not his to grasp at praise or blame, 

Red gold, or crown beneath the sun, 
His only pride to tend the flame 

That Homer and that Virgil won, 
Retain the rite, preserve the act, 
And pass the worship on intact. 

" Before the shrine at last he falls ; 

The crowd rush in, a chattering band ; 
But, ere he fades in death, he calls 

Another priest to ward the brand ; 
He, with a gesture of disdain, 

Flings back the ringing brazen gate, 
Reproves, repressing, the profane, 

And feeds the flame in primal state ; 
Content to toil and fade in turn 
If still the sacred embers burn." 

The section of "Memorial Verses" offers some of 
the best recent examples of this class of work. "In 
Poet's Corner," for example, gives us this tribute to 
Tennyson : 

" Thanks for the music that through thirty years 

Quicken'd my pulse to tears, 
The eye that colour' d nature, the wise hand, 

The brain that nobly plann'd ; 
Thanks for the anguish of the perfect phrase, 

Tingling the blood ablaze ! 
Organ of God, with multitudinous swell 
Of various tone, farewell ! " 

Even more beautiful are the tributes to Rossetti, 
Banville, and Leconte de Lisle. As for " Beatrice," 
it is a gem of purest ray serene. 

" Thro' Dante's hands, in dreamy vigil clasp'd 

A pale green bud shot skyward from the sod ; 
He bowed and sighed ; then laid the prize he grasp'd, 
A folded lily, at the feet of God. 

" There she has slowly open'd, age by age, 

And grown a star to light Man's heart to heaven ; 
Her perfume his divinest heritage, 
Her love the noblest gift God's self hath given." 

A volume of such high average excellence as this 
tempts to quotation, but space fails for more than 
has been given. We must, however, mention the 
translations from the Swedish of Rosenhare, Wex- 
ionius, and Stagnelius, and from the Dutch of 
Hooft and Vondel. The volume closes with " The 



Masque of Painters," performed in 1885, and richly 
deserving of preservation in this collection. 

Mr. John Davidson's "Ballads and Songs," with 
their daring originality and their turbulent energy, 
present the greatest possible contrast to the finished 
and academic verse of .Mr. Gosse. Of the half- 
do/en ballads grouped together in the forefront of 
the volume it is impossible to give any adequate 
notion by means of extracts. They are novel in 
conception, and their imagery is as striking as any 
that even Mr. Kipling has conceived. We are not 
quite sure that we understand them, but of their 
curious and unexpected impressiveness there can be 
no doubt. We must for the present be content to 
represent the author by a poem more nearly con- 
ventional than the intensely dramatic ballads, yet a 
poem that bears no less the sign and seal of his 
marked individuality. It is a set of three stanzas 
on " London." 

" Athwart the sky a lowly sigh 

From west to east the sweet wind carried ; 

The sun stood still on Primrose Hill ; 
His light in all the city tarried : 

The clouds on viewless columns bloomed 

Like smouldering lilies unconsumed. 

"Oh sweetheart, see ! how shadowy, 

Of some occult magician's rearing 
Or swung in space of heaven's grace 

Dissolving, dimly reappearing, 
Afloat upon ethereal tides 
St. Paul's above the city rides ! 

" A rumour broke through the thin smoke 
Enwreathing abbey, tower, and palace, 

The parks, the squares, the thoroughfares, 
The million-peopled lanes and alleys, 

An ever-muttering prisoned storm, 

The heart of London beating warm." 

It would be both interesting and instructive to com- 
pare these verses with those upon the same theme 
recently given us by Mr. Le Gallienne and Mr. W. 
E. Henley. 

" A Book of Song," by Mr. Julian Sturgis, in- 
cludes verses of many years, written rather for per- 
sonal satisfaction than in view of public applause. 
But their quality is so good, in spite of their unpre- 
tentiousness, that we are not willing to accept, with- 
out a word of commendation, the author's invita- 
tion " to remark that all alike are childish, and so 
pass on to a more worthy prey." " Whence? " is a 
good example of Mr. Sturgis's work. 

" Will he come to us out of the West 

With hair all blowing free ? 
Will he come, the last and best, 
Over the flowing sea, 
Prophet of days to be ? 

" Aye, he will come ; the unseen choir 

Attend his steps with song, 
And on his breast a deep-toned lyre, 
And on his lips a word like fire 
To burn the ancient wrong. 

" Bay-crowned and goodlier than a king, 

With voice both strong and sweet 
The song of ^freedom he will sing, 
And I from out the crowd shall fling 
My rose-wreath at his feet." 



152 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



We wish, indeed, that Mr. Sturgis had heen less 
exclusive in selecting the pieces for this volume. 
We are sure that some of the songs from his under- 
graduate days, " of a complexion sad as night," 
would have been equally acceptable with these now 
given, " for in those singing days of the reed voice 
'twixt man and boy the subtlest, saddest pleasure 
may be drawn from converse now and then with 
our good comrade Melancholy. Together we take 
the road, and in these mornings of our wayfaring 
a face once seen in the passing crowd, or the mere 
amorous air of fleeting Spring, may set us throbbing 
with a song of love." 

An unpretentious and exquisite talent, not unlike 
that of the author just named, is displayed by Mr. 
Auberon Herbert in his " Windfall and Water- 
drift." Here are nearly two hundred lyrics few 
of them exceeding eight lines all marked by refine- 
ment and delicate susceptibility. For example: 

" The sea is at rest for the storms are o'er 

Just touched with the hand of night ; 
And a line of shadow creeps to the shore, 
Then flashes in silver light, 

" Like a note that stoops in its flight, and droops, 

And clings for a while to the ground, 
Then trembles, and wakes from its trance, and breaks 
Into passion and glory of sound." 

It is a welcome surprise to find a poet in the apos- 
tle of voluntary taxation. 

We will close these notes upon a six months' 
sheaf of English poetry with a word for Mr. Will- 
iam Akerman's blank-verse tragedy, " The Cross 
of Sorrow." This poem is a dramatization, after 
the Elizabethan model, of " Le Mariage de Ven- 
geance " in Le Sage's " Gil Bias." The author has 
caught no little of the Elizabethan trick of diction, 
as the following passage, one of the best in the play, 
will show: 

" There are men still live whose lives are like the light 
That flashes from the topmost lighthouse tower, 
And comes the sea of sorrow up in arms 
It cannot shake the rock, their soul's foundation. 
With calm eyes looking out into the night, 
Watching the world's wild tempest whistling by, 
They light the lamp that hails the mariner 
Who, struggling on with his disabled barque 
Through mist and tempest findeth a new-born hope, 
And steers his fragile vessel home again 
Into a place of safety. Lonely the heights 
That make their dwelling, yet their solitude 
Is mightier than the state that hems about 
The palaces of kings and emperors ; 
And when the crack of doom falls out of Heaven, 
When the last tempest overtopples them, 
The world weeps tears of immortal sorrow 
For the light that shines no more ! " 

The structure of Mr. Akerman's drama was made 
for him, so to speak, by Le Sage, but considerable 
skill is displayed in the arrangement of scenes, and 
the work is one to read with pleasure. The Neo- 
Elizabethan drama is not a form of composition 
likely in our time to attract many readers, but, as 
the author observes, " the fashion of to-day is not 
necessarily the fashion of to-morrow," and every 



poet should be more concerned to find and work in 
his own element than to accept the trammels of 
some other merely because that other element hap- 
pens to be in vogue. 

Miss May Kendall is one of the most charming 
among contemporary writers of light verse ; and her 
new volume, while possibly not quite equal in exe- 
cution to her "Dreams to Sell," is full of pleasing 
and pathetic fancies. "A Fossil" offers a good ex- 
ample of her delicate touch. 

" He had his Thirty-nine Articles, 

And his Nicene Creed, 
And his Athanasian. Nothing else 

He appeared to need. 
He looked like a walking dogma, pent 

Neath a shovel brim ; 
If he never knew what the dogma meant, 

' Twas small blame to him. 

" He did not hazard a single guess, 

That might lead to twain, 
Whose answers never would coalesce 

In a peaceful brain ! 
He seemed pure fossil : yet I protest 

That across the aisle 
I one day saw him of life possessed 

For a little while ! 

" 'And streams in the desert,' sang the choir. 

What a strange surmise 
Just then awoke, like a smouldering fire, 

In his weary eyes ! 
That never came from the Nicene Creed 

'Twas a dream, I know, 
Of some fair day when he lived indeed, 

In the long ago ! " 

There is a suggestion of the whimsical in the piece 
just quoted, although the main purport is serious 
enough. And the whimsical is the element in which 
Miss Kendall does her most characteristic work, as 
might be amply illustrated, had we the needed space. 
" The Fatal Advertisements," for example, is as de- 
licious a bit of semi-scientific whimsicality as is often 
seen. And the scientific doctrine of the dissipation 
of energy is very neatly set forth in " Ether Insatia- 
ble," of which poem we may reproduce two out of 
four stanzas : 

" There is not a hushed malediction, 

There is not a smile or a sigh, 
But aids in dispersing, by friction, 

The cosmical heat in the sky ; 
And whether a star falls, or whether 

A heart breaks for stars and for men 
Their labour is all for the ether 

That renders back nothing again. 

"And we, howsoever we hated 

And feared, or made love, or believed, 
For all the opinions we stated, 

The woes and the wars we achieved, 
We, too, shall lie idle together, 

In very uncritical case 
And no one will win but the ether, 

That fills circumambient space ! " 

That the writer can, if she chooses, be entirely se- 
rious, is witnessed by the group of graceful pieces 
that close the volume, and one of which, " Forgive- 
ness," shall close our selections. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



153 



' Life is not utterly amiss. 

'Twould be ungracious to despair, 
I fancy, on a day like this, 

In such a free, soft air, 
One ceases to climb fast. Ah well ! 

There's a spring day before, my dear 
I'll show you where the asphodel 
Grew on the moor last year. 

' We bear no proud victorious sheaf, 

We have no ' Harvest Home ' to raise 
And yet perhaps a withered leaf 

May sometimes give God praise, 
As through its failing being run 

Old thrills of earth and wind and rain, 
Before it passes to be one 

With wind and earth again. 

And yet, not utterly in vain 

We bore the burden and the heat, 
We shared the sacrament of pain 

Altar where all men meet ! 
And now awhile have peace, nor grieve, 

Here in the moorland's joyous breath 
Until our erring souls receive 

The sacrament of Death ! " 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. 



BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 



The judicious reader of Miss Rep- 
Peer's In the Dozy Hours " (Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co.) will, we believe, 
be just a little disappointed, and that on the whole 
very pleasantly. Her latest volume of essays does 
not lack the cleverness and distinction which marked 
' Essays in Idleness," for instance, but there is one 
thing about this book which was not so obvious in 
that. Some may, perhaps, regret that Miss Rep- 
plier thinks fit to give her work a practical turn. 
It would certainly be rather sad if this pleasing 
essayist should ever, by any chance, lose herself in 
the turbulent chaos of nowaday life, so far as to 
try to settle burning questions and timely problems, 
or to handle current topics or present phases of 
thought. These are good things for some people to 
write about, but probably Miss Repplier does well 
to give them a wide berth. Still, it is a pity to re- 
main entirely apart from what really interests a 
good many people, and it is with great pleasure, 
therefore, that we perceive in this book not a little 
good common-sense on some matters of contem- 
porary moment which are too often engrossed by 
persons somewhat lacking in that excellent quality. 
The touch is light, of course, and there is not a lit- 
tle humor ; but there is good sense at bottom. There 
are many worthy people at the present day who 
might gain great advantage from a perusal of this 
work. The essay on " Lectures " would be a good 
preface to every University Extension course. That 
on " Opinions " should lie within easy reach of those 
misguided multitudes that read the newspapers for 
anything but news. " Pastels " might well be learned 
by heart (it is short) by very many members of 
literary societies, provided they could apply it to 
other matters, germane to the subject. We our- 



selves feel that "Aut Caesar, aut Nihil " and "A 
Curious Contention " contain many words of wis- 
dom ; but, being masculine, we may be prejudiced. 
" In the Dozy Hours," despite its misleading title, 
seems to indicate a real accession to the saving 
remnant which still maintains the good cause against 
the armies of folly. It is a pleasure to add that, 
beside the contributions above noted, there is much 
in the volume which will probably serve no good 
purpose whatever, except that of giving enjoyment. 
Also there are some interesting details about Agrip- 
pina's Kitten, whose name is Nero. 



Side glimpses of 
the Colonial 

Cavalier. 



Alon g wi ^ h the current of books on 
the Colonial Puritan, comes a timely 

Qne by Migg Mau( j WIlder Qoodwin 

on "The Colonial Cavalier" (Lovell, Coryell, & 
Co.). More picturesque, if less exemplary, than 
his mortified brethren to the north of him, and an 
element of weight and permanence in the compo- 
sition of Anglo-American character, the "Cava- 
lier " deserves serious and honest portrayal ; and 
such, within the modest scope and space-limits of 
her little book, the author has tried to give him. 
She has scanned the authorities with care, and with 
a commendable view of digesting her gleanings 
therefrom into a literary product of her own ; hence 
her book is no mere work of scissors and paste-pot. 
Miss Goodwin has not drawn her hero from his 
too-florid image in the glass of Southern tradition 
as a fancied fine gentleman all lace and ruffles, 
powder and sword-knot, who drank, swaggered, and 
gambled, and comported himself generally on his 
James River " estate " and at Williamsburg much 
as his prototype had done at Whitehall and St 
James's. There was undoubtedly in the horse jock- 
eying, rough-riding, free-handed Virginia tobacco- 
farmer, or squirelet, with his fine manners and his 
Tory traditions, some touch of the qualities with 
which the imagination of his descendants has gilded 
him. His abundant leisure, procured him by the 
abundant toil of his sable " retainers," allowed him 
to cultivate graces to which the rugged and labo- 
rious New Englander was long perforce a stranger. 
But there was a hint of pinchbeck about it all. 
Says John Randolph : " Nowhere could be found a 
school of more genial and simple courtesy than that 
which produced the great men and women of Vir- 
ginia, but it had its dangers and affectations ; it 
was often provincial and sometimes absurd." To 
our notion, Virginia " chivalry " never shone so 
genuinely as in the dark days when the stress of 
the Civil War had stripped away its tinsel. Rising 
with his reverses, the " Cavalier " showed himself 
a true cavalier. Take, for example, worthy, im- 
poverished Colonel Dabney, who, learning (from 
some strange source) that General Sherman pro- 
posed to " bring every Southern woman to the wash- 
tub," gallantly responded: "He shall never bring 
my daughters to the wash-tub ; / will do the wash- 
ing myself! " and for two years he suited action 
to word, scrubbing and mangling, starching and 



154 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



ironing, to the wonder of Fauquier County. Clio, 
in celebrating the sons of the Old Dominion, 
should not pass over Colonel Dabney. Miss Good- 
win's book is well written, and with some humor ; 
and it liberally fulfils the author's promise to " open 
a side-door, through which we may, perchance, gain 
a sense of fire-side intimacy with 'The Colonial 
Cavalier.' " 



Conversations on Sir Edward Strachey's "Talk at a 
Literature and Country House " (Houghton, Mifflin 
other matters. & CQ ) holdg rather ft p l easant p l ace 

among the Dialogues which are now somewhat the 
fashion. Mr. James's dialogues are clever, of course, 
but some have found it wearisome to be always guess- 
ing at the topic under discussion. Vernon Lee's are 
full of quickening thought, but the portentously long 
sentences are a sore trial now and then. Oscar 
Wilde's are delightful, but one can't go on reading 
them forever, even though they be preposterous. 
The conversations between Foster and the Squire 
make a refreshing patch of neutral tint in all this 
brilliancy and pyrotechnic. Not at all modern are 
these talks ; in fact, their charm lies largely in their 
being old-fashioned. An old English country house 
with pictures and traditions, and an old English 
country Squire with curious and cultivated interests, 
and a person named Foster who asks a great many 
questions, out of these materials Sir Edward Strachey 
has made his dialogues, some of which, at least, are 
already known to American readers through " The 
Atlantic Monthly." The dialogue is a fascinating 
form ; it has great dangers, but it offers many op- 
portunities. Local color and character, these give 
an interest, an atmosphere, to the Squire's little crit- 
ical disquisitions on widely differing subjects, from 
the Cuneiform Inscriptions down to English Politics, 
from Sa'di and Hafiz down to Tennyson and Mau- 
rice ; not exciting nor yet brilliant, not up to date in 
some respects, but interesting in many ways, and, 
on the whole, very good reading. A little conven- 
tional are they, one may urge, as dialogues. Foster 
is too much like the Question in a scientific quiz- 
book. But then, that is rather the way that one 
talks to old gentlemen like the Squire. The object is 
to get them to talk back ; so one asks questions. 
We should most of us be lucky if our questions were 
always answered with as much good sense and fine 
taste as were Foster's. 



Mrs. Fields's 
"Shelf of 
Old Books." 



Very pleasant reading, and delight- 
ful to the eye withal, is the fine vol- 
ume by Mrs. James T. Fields en- 
titled "A Shelf of Old Books" (Scribner). The 
books in point are certain notable volumes that came 
into the possession of Mr. Fields from time to time 
by gift or purchase. Each of these volumes, or 
groups of volumes, has for Mrs. Fields its special 
memories and associations, touching either author 
or giver; and these furnish the motif and ground- 
work of the three papers that form the contents of 
her book. The first paper, on Leigh Hunt, con- 



tains some good talk about Hunt, Shelley, Keats, 
Procter, and their circle ; the second, on Edinburgh, 
introduces Scott, Ramsay, " Kit North," Dr. John 
Brown, De Quincey, and other cultivators of liter- 
ature on a little oatmeal and much glenlivat, in 
Edina's palmy days ; the third paper, " From Mil- 
ton to Thackeray," is a medley of literary chat and 
anecdote, much in the vein of Thackeray's gifted 
daughter, Mrs. Ritchie. A prime favorite with the 
writer was Leigh Hunt, whom she knew personally,, 
and whose library, containing some precious speci- 
mens, finally came into Mr. Fields's possession. Mrs. 
Fields tells many pleasant stories of Hunt, which 
serve to offset some not pleasant ones of him afloat. 
A charming touch is that as to his love of flowers 
how in his prison days he papered the walls of 
his cell with a trellis of painted roses, and had plants 
set in the dismal windows like " Tim Linkinwa- 
ter's " famous mignonette. Among Mr. Fields's 
treasures was a copy of " Don Juan " that Byron 
himself once corrected and sent to Murray to be 
used in reprinting the poem. On a fly-leaf stands 
the following sarcastic note to the printer, penned 
by his lordship :**... The Authour repeats (a& 
before) that the former impressions (from whatever 
cause) are full of errours. And he further adds 
that he doth kindly trust with all due deference 
to those superior persons the publisher and printer 
that they will in future less misspell misplace 
mistake and mis-every thing, the humbled MSS. 
of their humble servant." This and other interest- 
ing notes and letters are given in fac-simile in the 
present volume. There are also a number of well- 
executed portraits and other illustrations, complet- 
ing and enriching the ensemble of a very attractive 
book. 

"The Yellow Book " always contains 

One year of the h var i ety O f things that it would 

" Yellow Book." > *> . 

go hard were there not a tew or con- 
siderable merit among them all. Indeed, one can 
hardly look over the contents of one of these star- 
ing octavos, without a dim sense of wonder that the 
editors should have unearthed so many acceptable 
writers and artists hitherto unknown to the public, 
for familiar names are by no means the rule. The 
October issue, which is the third of the series, im- 
presses us as not quite equal to the preceding two, 
although there are some striking features. Of the 
art, Mr. Philip Broughton's " Mantegna " is by far 
the best example. Mr. Beardsley's imagination 
riots as before, but one quickly wearies of his gro- 
tesque drawings. The poetry is " below par," the 
only really fine thing being " The Ballad of a Nun," 
by Mr. John Davidson. We may say a word for 
Mr. Morton Fullerton's strong sonnet on " George 
Meredith," without accepting that perverse novelist 
as Shakespeare's only rival "in our English tongue." 
The most conspicuous piece of prose is Mr. Hubert 
Crackanthorpe's " A Study in Sentimentality," and 
the best is " The Headswoman," by Mr. Kenneth 
Grahame. Mr. Henry Harland contributes a pa- 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



155 



Two popular 
expositions of 
Buddhism. 



thetic story which ranks with his most finished work. 
The January " Yellow Book," completing the first 
year of the periodical, also has a pretty sketch by 
Mr. Grahame, and a story by Mr. Harland. " Wlad- 
islaw's Advent," by Mrs. Me'nie Muriel Dowie 
Norman, is one of the more striking things in this 
volume. Two serious essays one by Mr. James 
Ashcroft Noble on Alexander Smith, and one by 
Mr. Norman Hapgood on " Stendhal " claim at- 
tention, and deserve it. The poetry includes pieces 
by Mrs. Tomson, Dr. Richard Garnett, and Mr. 
Davidson. The art is not particularly artistic, and 
-we have been most interested in two " Bodley 
Heads," being portraits of Mr. LeGallienne and Mr. 
Davidson. Messrs. Copeland & Day are the Amer- 
ican publishers. 

"The Gospel of Buddha according 
to Old Records " is the title of a 
compilation made by Dr. Paul Carus, 
and issued by the Open Court Publishing Co. It 
is a selection from the Buddhist scriptures, taken 
from the best English translations, and so arranged 
as to exhibit the life and teachings of Buddha in 
systematic and consecutive presentation. The ed- 
itor tells us that he has treated his material much 
as " the author of the Fourth Gospel used the ac- 
counts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth." In a few 
chapters, the editor appears as author ; but he as- 
sures us that these original chapters " contain noth- 
ing but ideas for which prototypes can be found 
somewhere among the traditions of Buddhism, and 
have been added as elucidations of its main princi- 
ples." The distinctive features of this book are the 
way in which the material has been arranged, and 
the valuable " Table of Reference," which refers us 
to the sources of the text, and also supplies us with 
parallelisms from the Christian Scriptures. Dr. 
Carus has done in prose very much what was done 
by Sir Edwin Arnold in the verse of his " Light of 
Asia." These popular expositions have their place 
and their value, and it is the part of pedantry to scorn 
them or to refuse them a hearing. We note at the 
same time the appearance of " A Buddhist Cate- 
chism " (Putnam), " compiled from the holy writ- 
ings of the Southern Buddhists, with explanatory 
notes for the use of Europeans." Mr. Subadra 
Bhikshu is the author of this little book, which was 
first written in German, " in the year 2438 after the 
Nirvana of the Tath^gato," and now appears in an 
English version. The catechetical form is employed 
throughout the book, and the exposition of doctrine 
is made both intelligible and attractive. 



Selected 
essays by 
Mazzini. 



A recent volume with the familiar 
Dent imprint contains a selection of 
" Essays by Joseph Mazzini" (Mac- 
rnillan), translated by Mr. Thomas Okey, and pro- 
vided with an introduction by Mr. Bolton King. A 
photogravure portrait of Mazzini faces the title-page 
of the book a good portrait, the saintlike charac- 
ter of the prophet of Italian unity reflected from the 



noble ascetic visage. Mr. King's introduction is 
mainly biographical, and recapitulates with marked 
sympathy the leading facts of that devoted life. 
The essays comprise " Interest and Principles" 
(1836), " Faith and the Future " (1835), The Pa- 
triots and the Clergy " (1835), the Programme " To 
the Italians " and the " Thoughts on the French 
Revolution of 1789" from "Roma del Popolo" 
(1871), "The Question of the Exiles" from "La 
Jeune Suisse " (1836), and a beautiful "Unpub- 
lished Letter " of consolation, addressed by Mazzini 
to a father sorrowing for the loss of his only son. 
Let it not be thought that these essays are of local 
and temporary interest only. They are far more 
than that, as are nearly all of the writings of their 
author. As long as noble ideals of patriotism, or 
of conduct in the other aspects of life, shall be cher- 
ished among men, the message of that great soul 
will have both meaning and force. As the name of 
the historical Mazzini recedes farther and farther 
into the past, his fame grows brighter and brighter. 
In the words of his most eloquent panegyrist: 

" Life and the clouds are vanished : hate and fear 

Have had their span 
Of time to hurt, and are not : he is here, 
The sunlike man." 

It is with real gratitude that we welcome a volume 
that cannot fail to widen the circle of those to whom 
Mazzini's message makes its appeal. 

" Blank Verse," by John Addington 
Symonds (imported by Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons), is a reprint of three 
essays which have been already published as an ap- 
pendix to a previous work. It is excellent to have 
them in a volume by themselves, for though rather 
slight, and by no means digested into a single treat- 
ise, they have in them a good deal that is very use- 
ful to the student of the technique of poetry. The 
first essay is general in character, the second is a 
review of English blank verse from Surrey to Ten- 
nyson, and the third is on Milton's blank verse. 
The study is chiefly of Rhythm ; and here, though 
we nowhere have a full and accurate statement of 
the principles at bottom, we do get a good deal 
which suggests the right idea the necessity of sub- 
ordinating the mere prosody to a consideration of 
the meaning which Professor Corson worked out 
so successfully in the treatment of blank verse in 
his " Primer of English Verse." Mr. Symonds's re- 
marks on Quantity and Rhythm (p. 10), and on 
Quantity in Latin and English (p. 4) , are good. When 
he says of " Hyperion " that the decasyllabic beat 
maintains an uninterrupted undercurrent of regu- 
lar pulsation" (p. 64), he gets closest to the basis 
of future studies in blank verse. The present stu- 
dent of poetic art has the advantage of Mr. Sy- 
monds, in recent work on the psychic effects of 
rhythm in general. But Mr. Symonds's book, though 
written some time ago, has much that seems to show 
that he had divined, as it were, a good deal as to 
the nature of rhythm in poetry. 



156 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



A new hutory In " The History of the English Lan- 
oj the English guage " (Macmillan), Professor Ql- 
language. j ver ]? arrar Emerson has produced 

a book that admirably serves the twofold purpose 
claimed for it in the preface as being " designed 
for college classes and for teachers of English." 
The treatment throughout is wholly scientific, and 
the best and latest authorities have been carefully 
consulted. What immediately attracts attention is 
the comparatively large space devoted to phonet- 
ics, for which, however, few readers will prob- 
ably quarrel with the author. The stand taken on 
the question of the influence of the Norman Con- 
quest on the language differs considerably from the 
popular conception, regarding it as incidental rather 
than revolutionary. In this discussion, as in sev- 
eral others of an historical character, admirable use 
is made of the results obtained by Stubbs and Free- 
man. The statement, in paragraph 30, that " this 
twofold declension [of the adjective] has been lost 
in the later development of the English, as in the 
other Teutonic tongues except High German," is 
too broad, as the same distinction is still kept up in 
the modern Scandinavian languages. An ingenious 
and useful feature of the index is the distinguishing 
between subjects and words used as examples, by 
the use of capitals and small letters respectively. 

The second series of Mr. James's 
% r dr J aL. "Theatricals" (Harper) contains 

two plays not very unlike those in 
the first series, which was noticed in THE DIAL for 
Sept. 1. These are rather the more interesting on 
the whole, although it appears that, like their pre- 
decessors, they were written for performances which 
never came off. One is tempted to wonder whether, 
if they had been given in public, they would have 
met with as striking success as that attending the 
production of Mr. James's recent play at the thea- 
tre of his patron saint. The volume is made more 
interesting by a few pages of comment. This is 
really quite amusing, especially Mr. James's char- 
acterization of himself as "the perverted man of 
letters freshly trying his hand at an art [in] which 
... he has if possible even more to unlearn than 
to learn." It is rather mean to be sniffy about any- 
thing by Mr. James, but one gets a bit irritated that 
when he can write such captivating things he should 
write such stupid ones. 



BRIEFER MENTION. 



Volumes III., IV., and V. of Thiers's " History of 
the French Revolution " (Lippincott) , in Mr. Frederick 
Shoberl's translation, are now published, and complete 
what is likely to remain the standard library edition of 
this work, as far as English readers are concerned. The 
fifth volume is provided with a good index, and the en- 
tire work is illustrated with more than forty fine steel 
engravings. We congratulate the publishers on their 
enterprise in producing this work, and the companion 
work on the Consulate and Empire. 



The late W. Robertson Smith's " Lectures on the Re- 
ligion of the Semites " (Macmillan) were delivered at 
Aberdeen in three successive courses, from 1888 to 
1891, by invitation of the Burnett Fund trustees. Only 
the first of the three series was published, as the failing 
health of the author checked his activities. This first 
series, having for a sub-title " The Fundamental Insti- 
tutions," appeared in 1889. A new edition of these lec- 
tures now appears, edited by a friend to whom the au- 
thor entrusted the task, and whom he supplied with a 
manuscript volume of additional materials for incorpor- 
ation within the work. The new edition thus differs 
materially from the earlier one, and represents, in all es- 
sential respects, the ripened and final opinions of the great 
scholar whose loss we mourned a few months ago. It 
is much to be hoped that arrangements may be made 
for publication of the two other series of lectures. 

" Commitment, Detention, Care, and Treatment of 
the Insane " and " Care and Training of the Feeble- 
Minded " are the titles of two collections of papers 
bound in one volume, and bearing the imprint of the 
Johns Hopkins Press. Both collections are reports of 
proceedings at the Congress of Charities, Correction, 
and Philanthropy, held at Chicago in 1893. The former 
report has been edited by Drs. G. Alder Blumer and H. 
B. Richardson, and the latter by Dr. George H. Knight. 

Volume XLI. of the " Dictionary of National Biog- 
raphy " (Macmillan) extends from Nichols to O'Dugan. 
The latter worthy, whose Christian name was John, was 
an Irish poet of the fourteenth century, and seems to 
have left a numerous literary posterity. Daniel O'Cou- 
nell gets the longest biography in the present volume, 
and Titus Gates comes next. The volume is rich in 
memoirs of the families of Nichols, Norris, North, 
O'Brien, O'Connor, and O'Donnell, and has, on the 
whole, a marked Celtic flavor. 

In " The World's Largest Libraries " (Young), a col- 
lege commencement address delivered last June, General 
James Grant Wilson tells us how, during a recent Eu- 
ropean sojourn, he made a point of examining many 
famous collections of books, and saw, in the course of 
his wanderings, no less than thirty-five millions of vol- 
umes, not to mention manuscripts, pamphlets, and 
prints. He appears to have been duly enthusiastic over 
the special treasures put before his eyes by various con- 
tinental librarians whom he visited, and has thrown to- 
gether in his lecture an extremely readable collection of 
facts and fancies pertaining to the world of the biblio- 
grapher. 

The " Temple " Shakespeare (Macmillan) rounds out 
the series of the comedies with "A Winter's Tale," 
which has for frontispiece an etching of the kitchen in 
the Stratford hous3 where the poet was born, suggest- 
ing that here he may himself have listened with open- 
eyed wonder to many a winter's tale during the years 
of childhood. At the same time, the series of the his- 
tories begins with " King John," the etching in this vol- 
ume being of the king's tomb in the cathedral of Rouen. 

Mr. T. M. Clark's "Architect, Owner, and Builder 
before the Law " (Macmillau) is " a summary of Amer- 
ican and English decisions on the principal questions 
relating to building, and the employment of architects." 
It includes hundreds of references to leading cases, as 
well as a great many practical suggestions about the 
drawing of building contracts. The book is one that 
must find its way into every law library, and that all 
persons engaged in building even a single house will 
find it advisable to own. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



157 



YORK TOPICS. 

New York, February 25, 1895. 

Mr. Henry Rutgers Marshall, one of the most prom- 
ising of our rising group of architects, will shortly pub- 
lish, through Messrs. Macinillau & Co., his second vol- 
ume, "^Esthetic Principles." The studies which led 
up to the publication of his first book, " Pain, Pleasure, 
and ^Esthetics," were originally undertaken with the 
desire of seeing how far the science of aesthetics and the 
philosophy of art would avail as helps in the author's 
practice of his profession. But even then, Mr. Marshall 
thought he might at some time place the results of his 
studies in such form that they could be readily understood 
by the average worker in festhetic subjects. This notion 
was confirmed by the encouraging appreciation of " Pain, 
Pleasure, and ^Esthetics " by the best thinkers in such 
matters in this country and England; and when Mr. 
Marshall was invited to deliver a course of lectures at 
Columbia College he decided to write the new book. 
" Esthetic Principles " comprises most of what he said 
in his lectures and a good deal more besides. The au- 
thor greatly hopes that it may be found understandable 
and helpful by his fellow-craftsmen among painters, 
sculptors, architects, musicians, and literary workers in 
general. It may be considered as introductory to his 
former book, but it is also a digest, in more popular 
form, of the aesthetic principles therein discussed. An 
especially important feature is the discussion of the very 
great negative value of the teachings of the science of 
aesthetics. The author hopes that the chapter on " neg- 
ative principles " will explode many a fallacy of practice 
and criticism, giving at the same time the truly valuable 
negative principles to take their place. 

It is a long time since the youthful Pneraphs " estab- 
lished their organ, " The Germ," which was to revolu- 
tionize the world of letters and art; but whatever the 
projectors of " The Germ " accomplished in other ways, 
that periodical was soon " done for." It is really quite 
an appreciable time since the London Century Guild 
established " The Hobby Horse," which is still flourish- 
ing, having pulled through many a tight place. In the 
wake of "The Hobby Horse" have followed "The 
Knight Errant " of Boston and " The Contributor " of 
Chicago. These three periodicals are, of course, the 
progenitors of "The Yellow Book," "The Chap-Book," 
and, more recently, " The Bibelot " and " The Paper- 
Knife." Still another esoteric magazine is projected, 
41 The Chameleon," at Oxford, which probably takes its 
name from Theodore Tilton's new book of poems, " Cham- 
eleon's Dish," lately published at the Oxford Press. 
With all these should be named Elbert Hubbard's " Lit- 
tle Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great," 
brought out each month by Messrs. G. P. Putnam's 
Sons. Musing on the multiplication of these titbits of 
literature, one is led to wonder where the thing will 
end. No publishing firm is now so small that it may 
not have its monthly or quarterly magazinelet. All 
sorts of little books are coming out, too, by minor, or 
minute, authors, which can be taken with a tiny sand- 
wich and a cup of tea. In fact, we are witnessing what 
may be called the Afternoon Tea Movement in English 
and American literature. As for the precious wicked 
ones, they are mostly harmless enough, as Mr. Robert 
Bridges (Americanus) intimates in this week's "Life." 
When they become too nasty, they can be served in the 
same fashion as the one-eyed elder brother of the Sul- 
tan of Morocco, who has just been walled up in his 



prison at Widah; or we may import Australian lady- 
bugs to prey on these black scales of literature. 

Magazines devoted entirely to literary news and ap- 
preciations are on the increase, also, as witness the 
American edition of " The Bookman." I remember tell- 
ing one of our up-to-date New York girls a few years 
ago that we already had the " Book Buyer," the " Book 
Lore," the " Book News," the " Book Worm," and the 
" Book Chat," and that now it was proposed to publish 
the "Book Mart." Quick as a flash came the reply : 
" How about the book-martyrs ? " I am afraid this was 
a reasonable question; but enough of these papers have 
suspended to make room for the new "Bookman." 
Speaking of literary journals reminds me that Mr. 
Wheeler, of the " Literary Digest," has associated with 
himself Mr. John H. Boner, the Southern poet, as co- 
editor of that able paper. 

The Grolier Club is following its book-binding ex- 
hibit with a collection of engraved portraits of woman 
writers. About one hundred and twenty-five are to be 
represented, from Sappho to George Eliot. In some 
cases a number of portraits are given, representing the 
subject at various ages, nine likenesses of Hannah More 
being shown. There will be a " ladies' day," when Mrs. 
Elizabeth W. Champney will deliver an address. This 
exhibition will be succeeded by a complete collection of 
the engravings of Mr. Asher B. Durand, from his appren- 
ticeship to an engraver, in 1812, until he abandoned en- 
graving for painting, in 1831. 

It is rumored that still another book club is to be es- 
tablished, this time in Buffalo by Mr. Irving Browne 
and other members of the Grolier. This will be in ad- 
dition to the Philobiblon of Philadelphia, the Rowfant 
of Cleveland, and the Caxton of Chicago. The most 
important announcement of the week in the way of new 
clubs, however, is the organization of " The Society of 
Iconophiles of New York," composed of ten gentlemen 
interested in engraving and in the preservation of accu- 
rate reproductions of historic houses. Mr. William L. 
Andrews is the first president; Mr. Robert Hoe Law- 
rence is secretary and treasurer; and Messrs. Avery, 
Bierstadt, Chew, Foote, Holden, and Lefferts are among 
the members. Mr. E. D. French, who has gained wide 
reputation for the designing of book-plates, has been 
appointed engraver to the society. The first engraving 
published will be a view of old St. Paul's Church in 
New York. It will be followed by views of the Bowl- 
ing Green and Fraunces Tavern. Fifty copies of each 
of the first ten engravings will be for sale, and may be 
obtained of Mr. James O. Wright, No. 6 East 42d st. 

Professor H. H. Boyesen has finally completed the 
" Essays on Scandinavian Literature," on which he has 
been engaged for several years, and they will be pub- 
lished by the Messrs. Scribner early in March. Chap- 
ters will be devoted to Bjornson, Jonas Lie, Alexander 
Kielland, Hans Christian Andersen, Georg Brandes, 
Esaias Tegner, and others; as well as a chapter on the 
minor Danish authors. Professor Boyesen has had a 
personal acquaintance with many of these writers. The 
announcement of a novel by Andrew Lang, " A Monk 
of Fife," dealing with the life and times of Joan of 
Arc, in view of the Harper novel on the same subject, 
raises an interesting question of literary priority. Who 
thought of it first, and who began it first ? I learn that 
" Coffee and Repartee," by Mr. John Kendrick Bangs, 
has reached a sale of thirty thousand copies. The first 
edition of the sequel, " The Idiot," will number seven 
thousand, five hundred. ARTHUR STEDMAN. 



158 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



A WINTER DREAM OF SUMMER. 



Mother of Poesy, dear Idleness! 

To-day I 'm thine in this cool nook of earth ; 

The hills all green around us at their birth, 

And goodly fields, and trees in summer dress. 

Oh, come and greet me with thine old caress. 

Come and receive me to thy house and hearth, 

Bring all thy music, waken all thy mirth, 

Pour round me all thy dreams that soothe and bless! 

Not minutes, but long dreamful hours are thine, 
And time for life to ripen on the bough 
Her royal fruitage, love, and thought, and soul; 
And these are they that pour the mellow wine 
Of song, with light to clear the careworn brow, 
Song, richest draught that sparkles in life's bowl. 

O. C. AURINGER. 



LITERARY NOTES. 



Auguste Vacquerie died at Paris on the nineteenth 
of February. 

Messrs. Stone & Kimball will publish "St. Ives," 
Stevenson's posthumous novel. 

The February number of " The Bibelot " is devoted 
to selections from Mr. John Payne's translation of Villon. 

Mr. Sidney Colvin asks for such of Robert Louis 
Stevenson's letters as their owners may be willing to 
submit for publication. 

The English department of Yale is about to produce 
Ben Jonson's " Silent Woman," with a carefully studied 
Elizabethan stage-setting. 

Reginald Stuart Poole, born in London in 1832, died 
at Kensington on the eighth of February. Archaeology 
and numismatics were the subjects of his best-known 
books. 

The Authors' Guild will have an Authors' Reading 
in New York on the evening of April 20. Mr. M. D. 
Conway has agreed to represent the Guild unofficially 
in England. 

" In Stevenson's Land," by Miss Marie Fraser, an- 
nounced by Messrs. Macmillan & Co., is certainly 
timely, and its subject possesses, in addition, indepen- 
dent interest. 

A search has recently been made in Italy for the 
tomb of Vittoria Colonna, and her remains have been 
positively identified, with those of her husband, in a 
church at Naples. 

It is announced that there will be this year no Turn- 
bull lectures on poetry at the Johns Hopkins University, 
but that Dr. George A. Smith, of Glasgow, has been 
engaged for a course on Hebrew poetry in 1896. 

The Tsar of Russia has ordered the appointment of 
a commission to found, in memory of the late Alexander, 
an institution where a home will be provided for dis- 
abled authors, artists, and actors. It was only a few 
weeks ago that he gave out of his privy purse the sum 
of 50,000 rubles for the purpose of providing pensions 
for authors. 

The lately organized Caxton Club of Chicago has 
made a good beginning in providing for what promises 
to be a very interesting exhibition of fine book bind- 
ings, to be held at the Art Institute, opening March 4. 



The collection includes examples of the work of many 
of the most famous binders, at home and abroad, and 
it will doubtless receive due attention and admiration 
from book-lovers. 

The long-heralded American edition of the London 
"Bookman," published by Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co., 
has at last sent forth its first number. It proves to be 
a magazine of some seventy pages, illustrated, contain- 
ing reviews, miscellaneous essays on literary subjects, 
much gossip of a rather trivial sort, and useful tabula- 
tions of book sales and current publications. The mag- 
azine is attractively printed, and we wish it every suc- 
cess. 

Dr. Richard Garnett, in " The Speaker " of London, 
pays the following poetical tribute to the four recent 
dead among English authors Syrnonds, Pater, Hamer- 
ton, and Stevenson: 

Child of the great Rebirth, who most of men 

Didst steep in Italy the English soul : 

Thou, Phidias of discourse, who couldst control 
Speech to Form's purity by shaping pen : 
Thou who all Art didst learn to teach again : 

And thou whose Art was Nature from the scroll 

Of Life how swiftly blotted ! golden toll 
Cast to the oarsman of the Stygian fen ! 
Of you who had not said, " Behold in these 

The strenuous growth Time mellows to endure, 

More rich, more fair for annual season found ! " 
dupes and scoffs of empty auguries ! 

Still flourishes the weed, the tree mature 
With stem and bough and fruitage loads the ground. 

As indicated in the last issue of THE DIAL, the ob- 
jection to the Covert Copyright Bill rests in its form 
and not in the principle involved. The proposed amend- 
ment, as it passed the Committee on Patents, tended to 
make damages nominal in both literary and artistic in- 
fringements, whereas the intention originally was to 
prevent excessive damages in the case of art and pho- 
tography alone. Last week Thursday a meeting of 
representatives of the Publishers' and Authors' Copy- 
right Leagues, and a committee from the American 
Newspaper Publishers' Association, was held in New 
York. Messrs. J. Henry Harper, George Haven Put- 
nam, Edmund C. Stedman, and Robert Underwood 
Johnson were present, together with Mr. William C. 
Bryant of the Brooklyn " Times," Mr. H. F. Gunnison 
of the Brooklyn "Eagle," and Mr. C. W. Knapp of the 
St. Louis " Republic." A revised draft of the Covert 
amendment was drawn up, relating to art works and 
photographs alone, and fixing penalties for infringe- 
, ment in such cases at from one hundred to ten thous- 
and dollars. It is hoped that this draft may be substi- 
tuted without difficulty when the Covert bill comes up 
in Congress. 

The presentation of the " (Edipus Rex " of Sophocles, 
at Beloit College, on the 22d of February, was an event 
in the history of both the town and the college. All 
the details were under the immediate charge of Profes- 
sor Theodore L. Wright, and the result reflected much 
credit upon him and his colaborers. The tragedy was 
rendered into English verse by the class of 1897, as a 
part of their term's work in the Greek drama; the 
classic forms of stilted expression were avoided, and 
modern dignified English phrase was employed. Other 
presentations, in the original, with elaborate setting, 
have been given; but it is doubtful if the true spirit of 
the " (Edipus " has ever been as well presented in 
America, in interpretation, translation, or faithfulness 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



159 



of costume. The stage was nearly square, and was oc- 
cupied on the same level by both actors and chorus, ac- 
cording to the later conception of the ancient setting; 
the scenery represented a palace in a forest near Thebes, 
and the costumes were all especially designed from the 
drapery on the figures seen on ancient Greek vases. 
The role of " (Edipus " was taken by Mr. C. W. Wood 
of the Senior class, whose interpretation, particularly in 
the frenzied passages at the climax of the tragedy, 
was thought by many to be comparable to Salvini's 
" Othello." The part of " Jocasta " was played with 
great credit by Mr. Loomis, as was that of " Creon " by 
Mr. Rose. The chorus of bearded Thebans, with Mr. 
Atkinson as Choragos, was especially strong; and their 
rythmic and strange dances, to the flute music especially 
prepared by Professor Allen, brought visible relief to 
the intense strain of the audience. The play was largely 
attended, not only by Beloit people, but by visitors from 
Chicago and other neighboring cities. 



TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS. 

March, 1895 (First List). 

Am. Academy at Rome, An. Royal Cortissoz. Harper. 
Art in Primitive Greece. John C. Van Dyke. Dial. 
Artists, Compensation of. W. C. Lawton. Lippincott. 
Bancroft Historical Collection, The. J. J.Peatfield. Overland. 
Bedding-Plants. Samuel Parsons, Jr. Scribner. 
Burns, The Religion of. Walter Walsh. Poet-Lore. 
Carries, Jean. Emile Hovelaque. Century. 
Charlotte Bronte's Place in Literature. Fred. Harrison. Forum 
Christianity and English Wealth. D.H. Wheeler. Chautauquan 
Cooperative Production, The Ethics of. 3. M.Ludlow. Atlantic. 
Cruiser, The Trial Trip of a. W. F. Sicard. Harper. 
Diphtheria Anti-Toxine, Production of . W.H.Park. McClure. 
Diphtheria, Anti-Toxine Treatment of. L. E. Holt. Forum. 
Diphtheria, New Treatment of. H. M. Biggs. McClure. 
Education, The Direction of. N. S. Shaler. Atlantic. 
Electric Locomotives on Steam Roads. Lippincott. 
Foreign Policy, Our. Henry Cabot Lodge. Forum. 
Fox-Hunting in the U. S. C. W. Whitney. Harper. 
Furs in Russia. Isabel F. Hapgood. Lippincott. 
Good Roads in California. Roy Stone. Overland. 
Gustavus Adolphus. Max Lenz. Chautauquan. 
Helmholtz, Hermann von. T. C. Martin. Century. 
Henry of Navarre. W. H. Carruth. Dial. 
Heredity. St. George Mivart. Harper. 
Horse-Market, The. H. C. Merwin. Century. 
Immigration and Naturalization. H. Sidney Everett. Atlantic. 
Income-Tax, The. E. R. A. Seligman. Forum. 
Jerusalem, Literary Landmarks of. Laurence Button. Harper 
Lord's Day, The. Wm. E. Gladstone. McClure. 
Municipal Government, Studies in. Harry P. Judson. Dial. 
New York Common Schools, The. S. H. Olin. Harper. 
Nun, A New England. Louis J. Block. Dial. 
Ocean Flyer, An. McClure. 

Orchestral Conducting. William F. Apthorp. Scribner. 
Orissa, The Holy Land of India. Magazine of Art. 
Poe, The Renascence of. D. L. Maulsby. Dial. 
Poetry as Criticism of Literature. Dial. 
Poetry, Recent English. William Morton Payne. Dial. 
Queen Victoria and Her Children. S.P.Cadman. Chautauquan. 
Reconstruction, At the Close of. E. Benj. Andrews. Scribner. 
Schreyer, Adolphe. Prince Karageorgevitch. Mag. of Art. 
Tempests, The Laws of. Alfred Angot. Chautauquan. 
Theatres, The Architecture of. G. Redon. Mag. of Art. 
Thoreau's Poems of Nature. F. B. Sanborn. Scribner. 
Village-Improvement Societies. B. G. Northrop. Forum. 
Whitman and Emerson, The Friendship of. Poet-Lore. 
Whitney, William Dwight. Charles R. Lanman. Atlantic. 
Ysaye, Eugene. H. E. Krehbiel. Century. 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 50 titles, includes books re- 
ceived by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 

A History of the Novel Previous to the 17th Century. By 
F. M. Warren. 12mo, pp. 361, gilt top. Henry Holt & 
Co. $1.75. 

Literature of the Georgian Era. By William Minto. Ed- 
ited, with introduction, by William Knight, LL.D. 12mo, 
pp. 365. Harper & Bros. $1.50. 

Latin Poetry. Lectures delivered in 1893 on the Percy Turn- 
bull Memorial Foundation in the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity. By R. Y. Tyrrell. 12mo, pp. 323, gilt top. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co. $1.50. 

Five Lectures on Shakespeare. By Bernhard Ten Brink ; 
trans, by Julia Franklin. 16mo, pp. 250, gilt top. Henry 
Holt & Co. $1.25. 

Old Pictures of Life. By David Swing ; with an Introduc- 
tion by Franklin H. Head. 2 vols., 16mo, gilt tops, uncut 
edges. Stone & Kimball. $2. 

Summer Studies of Birds and Books. By W. Warde 
Fowler, author of " A Year with the Birds." 12mo, pp. 
288, uncut. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. 

Good Beading about Many Books, Mostly by their Authors. 
Illus., 16mo, pp. 265, uncut. London : T. Fisher Unwin. 

The First Century of German Printing in America, 1728- 
1830. By Oswald Seidensticker. 8vo, pp. 254, paper. 
Philadelphia : Schaefer & Koradi. $1.20. 

Germanic Studies. I., Der Conjunkti bei Hartmann von 
Aue, von Starr Willard Cutting. 8vo, pp. 53, paper. 
University of Chicago Press. 

Spenser's Faerie Queene: Book L, Cantos IX. to XII. 
Edited by Thomas J. Wise. Illus. by Walter Crane, 4to, 
pp. 160 to 250, uncut. Macmillan & Co. $3. 

The Diary of Samuel Pepys. With Lord Braybrooke's 
Notes. Edited, with additions, by Henry B. Wheatley, 
F.S.A. Vol. V., 12mo, pp. 424. Macmillan & Co. $1.50. 

HISTORY. 

History of the People of Israel, from the Rule of the Per- 
sians to that of the Greeks. By Ernest Kenan. 8vo, pp. 
354. Roberts Bros. $2.50. 

The Making of the England of Elizabeth. By Allen B. 
Hinds, B. A. 12mo, uncut, pp. 152. Macmillan & Co. 
90cts. 

Old South Leaflets, Numbers 48 to 55. Reprints of docu- 
ments relating to early New England History. Old South 
Studies, each, pamphlet, 5 cts. 

BIOGRAPHY. 

Military Career of Napoleon the Great : Authentic An- 
ecdotes of the Battlefield. By Montgomery B. Gibbs. 
Illus., 12mo, pp. 514, gilt top. The Werner Co. $1.25. 

Three Men of Letters. By Moses Coit Tyler. 12mo, gilt 
top, uncut, pp. 200. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25. 

POETRY. 

The Inevitable, and Other Poems. By Sarah Knowles Bol- 

ton. With portrait, 16mo, pp. 100, gilt top, rough edges. 

T. Y. Crowell & Co. $1. 
Wild-Flower Sonnets. By Emily Shaw Forman. Illus., 

16mo, gilt top, pp. 35. Joseph Knight Co. Boxed, $1. 
Philoctetes, and Other Poems and Sonnets. By J. E. Ne- 

smith. 18mo, pp. Ill, gilt top. The Riverside Press. 

FICTION. 

Beyond the Dreams of Avarice. By Walter Besant. Illns., 

12mo, pp. 337. Harper & Bros. $1.50. 
The Phantoms of the Foot- Bridge, and Other Stories. By 

Charles Egbert Craddock. Illus., 16mo, pp. 353. Har- 
per & Bros. $1.50. 
Stories of the Foot-Hills. By Margaret Collier Graham. 

12mo, pp. 262. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25. 
Hippolyte and Golden-beak : Two Stories. By George Bas- 

sett. Illus., 16mo, pp. 227. Harper & Bros. $1.25. 
Men Born Equal. By Harry Perry Robinson. 12mo, pp. 

373. Harper & Bros. $1.25. 
A Farm-House Cobweb. By Emory J. Haynes. 12mo, 

pp. 261. Harper & Bros. $1.25. 



160 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 1895. 



The Book-Bills of Narcissus. An account rendered by 
Richard Le Gallienne. With frontispiece, 12mo, pp. 173, 
uncut. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1. 

The Honour of Savelli: A Romance by S. Levett Yeates. 
16mo, pp. 314. D. Appleton & Co. $1. 

The Woman Who Did. By Grant Allen. 16mo, pp. 223. 
Roberts Bros. Si. 

The Adventures of Jones. By Hayden Carruth. Illus., 
18mo, pp. 123. Harper & Bros. $1. 

In Wild Rose Time. By Amanda M. Douglas, author of 
" Larry." 12mo, pp. 300. Lee & Shepard. $1.50. 

Jack o'Doon. By Maria Beale. Illus., 24mo, pp. 277, gilt 
top. Henry Holt & Co. 75 cts. 

A Son of Hagar. By Hall Caine, author of " The Manx- 
man." Illus., 12mo, pp. 354. R. F. Fenno & Co. $1. 

The Chronicles of Break o' Day. By E. Everett Howe. 
12mo, pp. 342. Arena Publishing Co. $1.25. 

Life: A Novel. By William W. Wheeler. 12mo, pp. 287. 
Arena Publishing Co. $1.25. 

Chimmie Padden, Major Max, and Other Stories. By Ed- 
ward W. Townsend. Illus., 12mo, pp. 346, paper. Lovell, 
Coryell&Co. 50 cts. 

Jean Belin : The French Robinson Crusoe. From the French 
of Alfred de Bre'hat. Illus., 12mo, pp. 350. Lee & Shep- 
ard. $1.50. 

Castle Rackrent and The Absentee. By Maria Edgeworth ; 
with introduction by Anne Thackeray Ritchie. Illus., 
12mo, pp. 385. Macmillan & Co. $ 1.25. 

NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES. 

Lippincott's Select Novels: Gallia, by Me'nie Muriel 

Dowie ; 16mo, pp. 313. 50 cts. 
Putnam's Hudson Library: A Woman of Impulse, by 

Justin Huntley McCarthy ; 16mo, pp. 314. 50 cts. 
Merriam's Waldorf Series : Billtry, a parody on " Trilby," 

by Mary K. Dallas ; 16mo, pp. 153. 50 cts. 

SOCIOLOG Y FINANCE. 

Nihilism as It Is. Being Stepniak's Pamphlets, trans, by E. 
L. Voynich, and Felix Volkhofsky's " Claims of the Rus- 
sian Liberals." 12mo, pp. 122. London : T. Fisher Un- 
win. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

Joint-Metallism. By Anson Phelps Stokes. Third edition, 
12mo, pp. 221. Putnam's " Questions of the Day." $1. 

SCIENCE. 

Meteorology: Weather and Methods of Forecasting, with 

description of Instruments and River Flood Predictions. 

By Thomas Russell. Illus., 8vo, pp. 277. Macmillan & 

Co. $4. 
Physiographic Processes. By John W. Powell. Illus., 

4to, paper. American Book Co. 20 cts. 

THEOLOGY AND RELIGION. 

The Foundations of Belief: Notes introductory to the 
Study of Theology. By the Rt. Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, 
author of " Philosophic Doubt." 12mo, pp. 366. Long- 
mans, Green, & Co. $2. 

Modern Missions in the Bast : Their Methods, Successes, 
and Limitations. By Edward A. Lawrence, D.D.; with 
introduction by Edward T. Eaton, D.D. 12mo, pp. 329. 
Harper & Bros. $1.75. 

Christianity and Our Times. By R. P. Brorup. 12mo, 
pp. 228, paper. Chicago : International Book Co. 25 cts. 

EDUCATION BOOKS FOB SCHOOLS. 
Education in Maryland. By Bernard C. Steiner, Ph.D. 

Dlus., 8vo, pp. 331. Government Printing Office. 
A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics. Selected and edited by 

Felix E. Schelling. 12mo, pp. 327. Ginn's " Athenaeum 

Press Series." $1.25. 
Le Tour du Monde en Quatre - Vingts Jours. By Jules 

Verne. Edited, with English notes, by A. H. Edgren. 

16mo, pp. 173. Heath's "Modern Language Texts." 35 

cts. 

GAMES. 

The Table Game: A French Game to Familiarize Pupils 
with Objects in the Dining-room. By Helene J. Roth. 
W. R. Jenkins. In box, 75 cts. 

Das Deutsche Litteratur Spiel. Von F. S. Zoller. 100 
cards, in box. W. R. Jenkins. 75 cts. 



ILLINOIS CENTRAL R. R. 



Its " Chicago and &ew Orleans Limited," leav 
ing Chicago daily, makes direct connection at 
U^ew Orleans with trains for the 

MEXICAN 
GULF COAST RESORTS 

Of (Mississippi, reaching T$ay St. Louis, Pass 
Christian, TSiloxi, and Mississippi City before 
bedtime of the day after leaving Chicago. By 
its " &ew Orleans Limited," also, a new route 
from Sioux City and Chicago to Florida has 
been inaugurated, known as 

THE HOLLY SPRINGS ROUTE 

TO FLORIDA 



Via Holly Springs, 'Birmingham, and 
But one change of Sleeping Car, and that on 
train en route. Through reservations to Jack- 
sonville. The Illinois Central, in connection 
with the Southern Pacific, is also the Only True 
Winter Route 

; TO CALIFORNIA 

Via &EW ORLEANS. 



Through first-class Sleeping Car reservations > 
Chicago to San Francisco, in connection with 
the Southern Pacific's "Sunset Limited," every 
Tuesday night from Chicago. Through Tourist 
Sleeping Car from Chicago to Los Angeles every 
Wednesday night. 

Tickets and full information can be obtained 
of your Local Ticket tAgent, or by addressing 
e/f. H. HANSON, G. P. A., Chicago, III. 

THE BOOK SHOP, CHICAGO. 

SCARCE BOOKS. BACK-NUMBER MAGAZINES. For any book on any sub- 
ject write to The Book Shop. Catalogues free. 

r\F INTEREST TO AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS: The 
^-^ skilled revision and correction of novels, biographies, short stories, 
plays, histories, monographs, poems ; letters of unbiased criticism and 
advice ; the compilation and editing of standard works. Send your MS. 
to the N. Y. Bureau of Revision, the only thoroughly-equipped literary 
bureau in the country. Established 1880 : unique in position and suc- 
cess. Terms by agreement. Circulars. Address 

Dr. TITUS M. COAN, 70 Fifth Ave., New York. 

_ EDUCATIONAL. _ 

MISS GIBBONS' SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, New York City. 

No. 55 West 47th st. Mrs. SARAH H. EMERSON, Prin- 
cipal. Reopened October 4. A few boarding pupils taken. 

yOUNG LADIES' SEMINARY, Freehold, N. J. 

Prepares pupils for College. Broader Seminary Course. 
Room for twenty-five boarders. Individual care of pupils^ 
Pleasant family Life. Fall term opened Sept. 12, 1894. 

Miss EUNICE D. SEWALL, Principal. 



THE DIAL PRESS, CHICAGO. 




DIAL 



Jl SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF 

Criticism, grsou3si0n, anfc Information. 



EDITED BY ( Volume XVIII. 

PRANClSF.8ROWNE.it No. 210. 



T\/TA"Pr<tr 1R 1 QQ 10 els. a copy. ) 315 WABASH AVE. 
, MAKUxl It), 10^0. S2.ayear. } Opposite Auditorium. 



Charles Scribner's Sons' New Books 



Dr. Parkhurst's Book, 

OUR FIGHT WITH 

TAMMANY. 

By Rev. CHARLES H. PARKHURST, 

D.D. 12mo, $1.25. 

"There can be no doubt that ' Dr. Park- 
hurst's book' will have a wide sale, not 
only because it gives the whole story of his 
crusade in condensed, get-at-able form, but 
because every man and woman who lives 
in a city or town where there is official 
corruption and where is there not ? will 
read it to learn how the work of reforma- 
tion may be carried on. The book is a mon- 
ument to Dr. Parkhurst, raised by his own 
hands." The Chicago Tribune. 

" An extraordinary volume, which no 
one can afford to leave unread. It is the 
history of a great period in the life of a 
great city. It is also the partial autobi- 
ography of a remarkable man. It is finally 
a practical guide to the problem of muni- 
cipal reform." The Examiner. 

" It is the most fascinating volume that 
lias appeared this year, and we predict that 
it will be read by more people than all 
novels put together." Christian Work. 

" It is one of the remarkable histories 
of the times." Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

The Life and Adventures 

OF 

GEORGE 
AUGUSTUS SAL A. 

Written by Himself. With Portrait. 

2 vols., 8vo, $5.00. 

"A singularly interesting autobiogra- 
phy. There have been published a mul- 
titude of autobiographical recollections, 
more than one of which has been charac- 
terized as a storehouse of anecdotal liter- 
ature and of materials for the history of 
the times. But no other compilation of 
personal reminiscences deserves so thor- 
oughly to be thus described as the delight- 
ful book here noticed." M. W. Haze/tine, 
in the New York Sun. 

" It is the ' livest ' book of the season ; 
full of all sorts of information as 'to all 
sorts of people ; bristling with anecdote." 
Brooklyn Eagle. 

" Two delightful volumes. There is not 
a dull page in either volume. " Boston 
Advertiser. 

*#* For sale by all booksellers, or sent, 
post-paid, on receipt of price, by the pub- 
lishers. 



History of the United States. 

By E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS, D.D., LL.D., President of Brown University. With 

Maps. 2 vols., crown 8vo, $4.00. 

" It is admirably arranged ; it gives much information not hitherto directly accessible to the 
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THE DIAL 



[March 



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THE DIAL 



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MOST TIMELY BOOK OF THE YEAR. 



" [Military Career of 

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FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. 

NEW YORK : 112 Fifth Avenue. 
CHICAGO : 148 and 150 Madison Street. 
TORONTO : 140 and 142 Tonge Street. 



166 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 1895. 



MACMILLAN AND Co.'S NEW BOOKS. 



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THE DIAL 



Journal of Efterarg Criticism, Bfecu00ion, ant Information. 



THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published on the 1st and 16th of 
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No. 210. MARCH 16, 1895. Vol. XVIII. 



CONTEXTS. 



THE REPORT ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION . 167 

COMMUNICATIONS 169 

The Humanities and the Sciences. Frederic 

L. Luqueer. 
Rome and Chicago. Samuel Willard. 

THE LIVES OF TWO ENGLISH NATURALISTS. 

Sara A. Hubbard 171 

THE ANTENNAE IN POETRY. Edward E. 

Hale, Jr 174 

THE STORY OF DEAN CHURCH'S LIFE. C. A. 

L. Richards 176 

CHAPTERS OF POPULAR SCIENCE. A. E. 

Dolbear 176 

SOME RECENT BOOKS ON SOCIAL SUBJECTS. 

C. R. Henderson 177 

Flint's Socialism. Nicholson's Historical Progress 
and Ideal Socialism. Gohre's Three Months in a 
Workshop. Barnett's Practicable Socialism. 
Towards Utopia. Kelley's The Law of Service. 
Warner's American Charities. Tolman's Municipal 
Reform Movements in the United States. Atchi- 
son's Un-American Immigration. Otken's The 
Ills of the South. Schindler's Young West. Ostran- 
der's Social Growth and Stability. The Rights of 
Labor. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 181 

Erratic criticism by Mr. Saintsbury. Historical 
essays by Frederic Harrison. Stevenson as a steer- 
age passenger. Folk-songs of many lands. German 
studies of Shakespeare's women. A French sailor 
turned author. The London of To-day. Memories 
of Brook Farm. Napoleon on the battle-field and by 
the camp-fire. 

BRIEFER MENTION 184 

NEW YORK TOPICS. Arthur Stedman 185 

LITERARY NOTES 186 

ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SPRING PUBLICATIONS 187 
LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 191 



THE REPORT ON ELEMENTARY 
EDUCATION. 

The Preliminary Report of the Committee 
of Fifteen, presented last month to the confer- 
ence of school superintendents at Cleveland, 
is an educational document of the first import- 
ance, and at once takes rank with the Com- 
mittee of Ten's Report on Secondary Educa- 
tion. These two documents may fairly be said 
to mark a new era in educational discussion, to 
more than prepare the way for that rational 
and scientific plan of cooperation among our 
educators that has so long been hoped for, yet 
but dimly descried upon the horizon. The 
American political organization, with its un- 
paralleled measure of local autonomy, has cre- 
ated a special educational problem in the 
United States, and calls for the evolution of a 
special system adapted to its needs. We are 
doubtless still in the period of scattered aims 
and half-wasted energies, but order is slowly 
emerging from chaos. The fermentation must 
go on for many years yet ; but the clarified 
final product will, we trust, prove superior to 
the product of the centralized European sys- 
tems. We have to attain the golden mean 
between license and rigidity, to devise a plan 
sufficiently elastic to fit with all of our widely 
varied conditions, to combine respect for law 
in the fundamentals with much exercise of free- 
dom in the details. 

To the National Educational Association is 
due our gratitude for the movement which has 
resulted in the two Reports above alluded to. 
The Committee which has framed the Report 
now to be considered was appointed at the in- 
stance of the Association early in 1893. It 
was divided into three sections of five members 
each, having for their respective subjects " The 
Training of Teachers," "The Correlation of 
Studies," and " The Organization of City 
School Systems." Nearly two years have been 
spent in the collection and collation of expert 
opinion upon these three subjects ; the digested 
result now appears in the Report as presented 
at Cleveland. The text of this Report makes 
up the entire contents of the March issue of 
" The Educational Review," and is thus easily 
accessible to the public. The members of the 
sub-committees are nearly unanimous in their 



168 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



respective recommendations. To the first sec- 
tion of the Eeport there is no dissenting voice ; 
to the third, but one or two trifling divergences 
of opinion. To the second alone, as one might 
have predicted from its subject, are any con- 
siderable number of exceptions taken. These 
minority opinions, while helpful as offering 
special points of view, tend, of course, to 
weaken the force of the document as a whole, 
and are, pro tanto, to be regretted. 

The first section of the Report, signed, as we 
have said, by all five members of the sub-com- 
mittee, lays down the fundamental principles 
that should be consulted in the training of 
teachers for their professional work. At the 
start, the requirement is made of high-school 
education for elementary work, and of collegiate 
education for secondary work. We have no 
doubt that the equivalent for these respective 
amounts of school-study would be acceptable 
to the signers of this Report, but we wish that 
it had been more explicitly stated. If a teacher 
has the necessary education, it does not matter 
where or how he got it ; yet the indolence of 
school officers, or their tendency to discrimi- 
nate in favor of routine acquisition, often 
makes them look askance at a well-prepared 
applicant merely because he has not been 
through the regular educational mill. Again, 
when we come to the main subject of the Re- 
port the kind and amount of professional 
training that ought to be exacted of teachers 
in addition to the merely academic prepara- 
tion we cannot help noting a tendency to 
ignore the fact that a considerable number of 
the best teachers need little or none of this 
special training, although there is no doubt of 
its' beneficial effect upon the rank and file. 
Still, those who are fitted by natural parts or 
predispositions to dispense with normal school 
training ought not to have it forced upon them. 
The test of practical success is worth more 
than any academic tests whatsoever, and some 
way of giving it a trial ought to be devised for 
use in promising cases of well-developed nat- 
ural aptitude. 

This exception being taken, we are free to 
admit that most young men and women who 
look to teaching for a career will be helped by 
the work of the professional school. The first 
point considered is whether academic studies 
belong to the course of such a school. The 
admission is made, although somewhat grudg- 
ingly, " that methods can practically be taught 
only as subjects," and that the work of the 
normal school " may so treat of the subjects of 



study, not as objects to be acquired, but as ob- 
jects to be presented, that their treatment shall 
be wholly professional." We believe that the 
work of a normal school should be very largely 
of this character, and wish that the Report 
had more distinctly emphasized its importance. 
But there still remains, of course, a certain 
amount of professional training of a more 
technical character, and with this the major 
part of the Report is concerned. The follow- 
ing six elements of such training are differ- 
entiated: Psychology, Methodology, School 
economy, Educational history, Observation of 
teaching, and Practice-teaching under criti- 
cism. We think that the Report overestimates 
the relative importance of the last two of these 
six elements in recommending that one-half of 
the total period of training be devoted to them. 
On the other hand, there is no undue exagger- 
ation in the position so squarely assumed with 
reference to psychology. " Most fundamental 
and important of the professional studies which 
ought to be pursued by one intending to teach 
is psychology." This is no whit too emphatic, 
and it has our cordial approval. But by psy- 
chology must be understood the real thing, not 
the sorry stuff that parades under that name 
in too many of our normal schools, and which 
consists for the most part of empirical facts 
couched in a meaningless jargon. " Pyschology, 
what crimes are committed in thy name ! " is 
an exclamation that must often rise to the lips 
of those who have had occasion to make ac- 
quaintance with the popular text-books of the 
past generation. On the whole, scientific psy- 
chology being given, together with the thorough 
study of a few carefully chosen subjects con- 
sidered " as objects to be presented," we should 
be inclined to make light of special methodol- 
ogy, of school economy, and of the history of 
education. These things will all be added, in 
due time, to the equipment of the serious 
teacher, but they are not of the essentials, and 
the mind that has had the proper fundamental 
discipline may as well be left to find its way to 
them unaided. 

The Report on the organization of city school 
systems exhibits sound judgment and a proper 
distribution of emphasis. " The instruction 
will be ineffective and abnormally expensive 
unless put upon a scientific educational basis 
and supervised by competent educational ex- 
perts." These words from the opening pages 
of the Report summarize its recommendations. 
More specifically, the Report calls for a con- 
centration of responsibility for appointment 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



169 



rather than election of school directors ; for 
boards of education numbering from five to 
fifteen members, " not chosen to represent any 
ward or subdivision of the territory or any 
party or element in the political, religious, or 
social life thereof "; for absolute independence 
of the superintendent in all matters relating to 
the selection of teachers and the shaping of 
instruction. The latter of these points is the 
most important, and here the language of the 
Report has no uncertain sound. "A city school 
system," we are told, " may be able to with- 
stand some abuses on the business side of its 
administration and continue to perform its 
function with measurable success, but wrongs 
against the instruction must, in a little time, 
prove fatal. Government by the people has 
no more dangerous pitfall than this, that in 
the mighty cities of the land the comfortable 
and intelligent masses, who are discriminat- 
ing more and more closely about the educa- 
tion of their children, shall become dissatisfied 
with the social status of the teachers and the 
quality of the teaching in the common schools. 
In that event, they will educate their children 
at their own expense, and the public schools 
will become only good enough for those who 
can afford no better." 

There is one way, and one way only, to avert 
this danger. The whole work of instruction 
must be put upon a professional and scientific 
basis by securing competent teachers, ade- 
quately compensating them for their work, as- 
suring them of fixed tenure and advancement 
according to merit, and reducing to a minimum 
the formal regulations and petty restrictions 
that hamper the individual and wantonly lower 
the tone of the whole teaching-force. Now all 
" this cannot be secured if there is any lack of 
authority, and experience amply proves that it 
will not be secured if there is any division of 
responsibility." We have to choose between 
a superintendent fully empowered in these 
matters and fully responsible, on the one hand, 
and "administration by boards or committees" 
on the other. Whatever may be the possibili- 
ties of evil in the former alternative, they are 
trifling when compared with the well-proved 
evils of the latter. Boards or committees are 
simply " not competent to manage professional 
matters and develope an expert teaching-force. 
Yet they assume, and in most cases honestly, 
the knowledge of the most experienced. They 
override and degrade a superintendent, when 
they have the power to do so, until he becomes 
their mere factotum. For the sake of harmony 



and the continuance of his position, he con- 
cedes, surrenders, and acquiesces in their acts, 
while the continually increasing teaching-force 
becomes weaker and weaker and the work 
poorer and poorer. If he refuses to do this, they 
precipitate an open rupture and turn him out 
of his position. Then they cloud the issues and 
shift the responsibility from one to another." 

This vigorous exposure of a great evil and 
suggestion of a remedy carries conviction in 
its every phrase. It is indeed, as the Report 
says, " unprofitable to mince words about this 
all-important matter." The dissenting opinions 
of individual members of the Committee are 
upon trifling matters of detail, and only serve 
to bring out by contrast their unanimity upon 
the great questions at issue. Dealing with the 
weightiest of educational matters, this Report 
voices the great body of intelligent opinion, and 
cannot fail to become a power for good. It 
will be read by every American educator worthy 
of the name, and will strengthen its readers in 
their determination to uphold the dignity of 
their profession, to resist to the utmost the ef- 
forts everywhere made by the vulgar dema- 
gogue and the ignorant politician to fit our city 
school systems to their base ideals. 

The third and longest of the Reports, hav- 
ing for its subject the correlation of elemen- 
tary studies, must be reserved for considera- 
tion at some other time. It is marked off from 
the two others by its academical or philosoph- 
ical, as distinguished from their distinctively 
practical, character, and it raises a set of prob- 
lems of an entirely different sort. It is also 
the only Report which exhibits a serious diver- 
gence of opinion on the part of those who have 
drawn it up. It may well, for these reasons, 
be made the subject of a separate article. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 

THE HUMANITIES AND THE SCIENCES. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Culture deprecates polemics. It rejoices when forces 
unite that were before at odds. Yet how often is " cul- 
ture " made the battle-cry of partisanship. It has been 
so in the formation of our college curricula. The hu- 
manities were first supreme in the universities. But 
their supremacy was not long unchallenged. The sci- 
ences called for admission. Unfortunately, this was at 
first denied. They had to fight their way in step by 
step. Just as unfortunately, the sciences, now having 
gained high ground, look down patronizingly at the 
humanities. And there is back-biting between the two. 

But better things are near. At first, forced toleration, 
then self-sought copartnership, will result. The scien- 
tist is seeing that he must be broadly human ; and the 



170 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



humanist is becoming scientific. Sir Philip Sidney said 
of Cato : " He misliked, and cried out against, all Greek 
learning, and yet, being fourscore years old, began to 
learn it, belike fearing that Pluto understood not Latin." 
So the scientist, crying out against the humanistic learn- 
ing, and regarding its language as pedantry, will in time 
be forced to acquire it, if for no other reason, to gain 
the ear of a culture even more exacting perhaps than 
was Pluto. " What lumps of raw fact are flung at our 
heads ! " wrote Frederic Harrison. " Through what tan- 
gles of uninteresting phenomena are we not dragged in 
the name of Research, Truth, and the higher Philosophy! 
Mr. Mill and Mr. Spencer, Mr. Bain and Mr. Sidgwick, 
have taught our age very much ; but no one of them was 
ever seen to smile ; and it is not easy to recall in their 
voluminous works a single irradiating image or one mon- 
umental phrase." This is the over-statement of parti- 
sanship. But it indicates the nature of the demand that 
will humanize the sciences. 

On the other hand, the humanities are growing up to 
the level of the scientific conscience. History and lit- 
erature are becoming scientific studies. Sociology, the 
humanity of humanities, is making good its claim to be 
reckoned with as a science. 

Thus each is learning from the other. Science and 
the humanities alike are carried on by men. And sym- 
pathetic intercourse is discovering^ a common standing 
place and horizon. Ogden N. Rood, professor of phy- 
sics at Columbia, was speaking of his walks and talks 
with the late Dr. Merriam, professor of Greek. "Dur- 
ing these," he said, " I became a great deal better ac- 
quainted with his habits of mind than I had ever been 
before, and was very much astonished to find that he 
undertook to treat those matters those things that hap- 
pened ages and ages ago very much upon the same 
principles that we employ in physical laboratories. I 
would say to him, with regard to a certain theory : 
' This thing looks all right, isn't that so ? ' He would 
reply, ' Yes, it is plausible ; there are some things in its 
favor, but not enough ; we need to study the matter a 
great deal more.' So, from time to time, it happened 
to me that I received at his hands a dose of my own 
medicine the kind of medicine that we are in the habit 
of administering to students in the physical laboratory." 

Intercourse such as this will harmonize the efforts of 
educators. We shall have a wide curriculum in our 
colleges wide enough for the sciences and the human- 
ities to run side by side to the same goal. Students, 
taking the hand of either, will not be led, one east, one 
west, as so often happens now. 

FREDERIC L. LUQUEER. 

Columbia College, March 4, 1895. 



ROME AND CHICAGO. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Some years ago I noticed the near coincidence of the 
latitudes of Rome and Chicago. Thomas's Gazeteer 
gives the latitude of St. Peter's as 41 54' 6". The lati- 
tude of Dearborn Observatory at the former Chicago 
University was 41 50' 1". Mr. Elias Colbert favored 
me with the information that at Chicago one minute 
of latitude is 6074 feet in length hence one second of 
latitude is 101.23 feet. With these data and maps of 
the cities, I find these relations of place: 

Extend our Madison street straight east, and it will 
run over the Aventine Hill. Van Buren street's line 
passes just south of the Aurelian Wall, near the Porta 
Appia. St. Peter's is east of Maple street, and the area 



between Maple and Oak streets, with the Vatican ex- 
tending north across Division street. The middle of the 
Forum is about east of Indiana street: the Colosseum 
corresponds to the space between Illinois and Kinzie 
streets. The Theatre of Pompey, place of the greatest 
of assassinations, the fall of Julius Caesar, lay almost 
exactly in the line of Erie street. 

The whole of old Rome, then, as bounded by the 
Aurelian Wall, lay between the latitudes of our Schiller 
street and Van Buren street. 

Compared with our modern cities, the area of Rome 
was small. The Servian city, that is, the city included 
within the walls ascribed to Servius Tullius, thus the 
city strictly, as known to Caesar, Cicero, and Horace 
had an area almost exactly two square miles ; our great 
fire of 1871 ran over three and one-fourth square miles 
of surface, or as much as the Servian city and sixty-two 
per cent more. The Aurelian Walls added about as 
much as our burnt area, say three and three-eighths 
square miles, making the new area 5.3228 square miles, 
say five and one-third square miles. In our city, the area 
bounded by North avenue and Harrison street, Ashland 
avenue and the Lake Shore, is rather large for this. 

If now we add the later annexations west of the Ti- 
ber, the Leonine city, say nine-sixteenths of a square 
mile, we have a total area of 5.8831 square miles, al- 
most six miles; less than is included by our Chicago 
avenue, Ashland avenue, Twenty - second street, and 
State street. Such was the mighty ruler of the civil- 
ized world. 

It is to be wished that we could deal with population 
as we can with latitudes and areas. But a Roman cen- 
sus did not involve an enumeration of the whole popu- 
lation in our sense of the term: its main object was to 
make up the voting lists, dividing the voters into cen- 
turies,* the tax lists, and the military lists: hence we 
have not definite information. We have a census of 
houses taken by the emperor Theodosius, which found 
of the houses (domus) of the rich, 1780; and of the in- 
sulce, flats and dwellings of the middle class and poor, 
46,602. 

The population of Rome under the early emperors, 
say in the first century, is estimated by Gibbon (chap, 
xxxi.) at 1,200,000. With this, Milman, from whose 
notes I quote, agreed; Dureau de la Malle says 562,- 
000, or less than half of Gibbon's number. Zumpt says 
2,000,000; Dr. Thomas Henry Dyer, the sturdy de- 
fender of the reality of Romulus and Numa Pompilius, 
estimates aliens, 100,000; slaves, 800,000; and a total 
population of 2,045,000. Hoeck raises it to 2,265,000; 
and Lipsius crowns all with 8,000,000! Where could 
he stow them away ? If we leave out Lipsius's exag- 
geration and take the average of the estimates of the 
other six, we have 1,545,333: a number not far from 
the present population of our city by the lake. 

But if Chicago be like old Rome in latitude and in 
population, God forbid that our city follow the other in 
the horrors of her history! SAMUEL WILLARD. 

Chicago, March 8, 1895. 

* Centuries. I venture to call in question the ordinary der- 
ivation of this word from centum, a hundred. I think centu- 
ria to be an identical form from two unrelated roots, like jet, 
lake, last, scald, in English. Thus from centum we have cen- 
turia, a collection of a hundred things, and centurion; but 
from censeo, with fundamental meaning to divide, discrimin- 
ate, we have century, a division of the people, censor, the officer 
who made the division, census, and censure ; and these have 
no relation to number. 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



171 



Itfefo 



THE LIVES OF Two ENGLISH 
NATURALISTS.* 



The two eminent English naturalists, Pro- 
fessor Richard Owen and Dean Buckland, were 
for many years coadjutors in science, in phil- 
anthropy, and social reforms. Every measure 
for the general good received their hearty sym- 
pathy and support. They were men of integ- 
rity rare and fine, with personal traits adding 
the finishing grace to their mental endowments. 
They adorned the new learning, to which they 
lent dignity and distinction. The records of 
their life-work, published simultaneously by an 
American house, borrow interest from each 
other. They are fitting monuments to the mem- 
ory of two noble scholars and faithful expo- 
nents of the best spirit of the nineteenth century. 

It is illustrious and charming company to 
which we are introduced in the volumes com- 
memorating the life of Richard Owen, "the 
Cuvier of England." From the very outset 
of his career he came in contact with distin- 
guished personages, and, winning his way rap- 
idly among them, the circle of his friendly and 
familiar acquaintance widened, until seemingly 
it embraced every notable character from the 
heads of the Royal House down through the 
various ranks of inherent and acquired nobility. 
He bore himself through it all with the quiet, 
simple grace of one born to the purple, or, bet- 
ter still, of one unconscious of worldly honors 
and successes, intent solely upon the accom- 
plishment of the work he was given to do. 

Richard Owen was born in Lancaster in 
1805. His father dying in the boy's early 
childhood, he was left to the care and guardian- 
ship of his mother, a woman of rare intelligence 
and refinement. She was of French extraction, 
and from her the son doubtless derived many 
of his mental gifts and personal attractions. 
As a schoolboy he did not in any way distin- 
guish himself, unless, as his sister said, by being 
" very small and slight, and exceedingly mis- 
chievous." At the age of sixteen he was appren- 
ticed to a surgeon, who was, in the words of the 

*THK LIFE OF RICHARD OWEN. By his grandson, the 
Rev. Richard Owen, M.A.; with Essay by the Right Hon. 
T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. In two volumes, illustrated. New 
York : D. Appleton & Co. 

THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAM BUCK- 
LAND, D.D., F.R.S., sometime Dean of Westminster, twice 
President of the Theological Society, and First President of 
the British Association. By his daughter, Mrs. Gordon. 
With Portraits and Illustrations. New York : D. Appleton 
&Co. 



indenture, to teach him the " arts, business, pro- 
fession and mysteries of a surgeon, apothecary, 
and man midwife, with every circumstance re- 
lating thereto." His new situation undoubtedly 
revealed him to himself, for he discovered imme- 
diately the pursuit for which he was endowed, 
that of dissecting animal organisms and dis- 
cerning their internal structure and relations. 
A term at the Edinburgh University in the 
winter of 1824-25 was so faithfully improved 
that his chief medical instructor commended 
him to the patronage of the famous Abernethy 
of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Mr. 
Owen afterwards said : 

" I shall never forget the day when I arrived for the 
first time in London, where I had literally not one sin- 
gle friend. . . . The sense of desolation which I expe- 
rienced in walking up Holborn towards St. Bartholo- 
mew's Hospital . . . was something indescribable." 

The contrast is sharp between this experi- 
ence of the desolate youth, not yet twenty-one, 
and that which, after a brief interval, enriched 
all his remaining years. Dr. Abernethy di- 
vined his abilities at a glance, and gave him 
the post of prosector for his lectures. The 
following year he became a member of the 
Royal College of Surgeons, and was appointed 
assistant curator of the Museum, with a salary 
of six hundred dollars a year. In another 
twelvemonth he was lecturing upon compara- 
tive anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 
Professor Owen earned his promotions by tire- 
less toil. In addition to his work as curator 
and lecturer, he cultivated a small medical prac- 
tice at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and gave his ser- 
vices liberally to the sick poor within his reach. 
He availed himself of the opportunity of dis- 
secting the animals which died under the care 
of the Zoological Society of London, and thus 
secured valuable materials for increasing his 
knowledge of comparative anatomy. At the 
age of twenty-six he began the long and able 
series of original papers contributed to the 
various learned associations of London, and 
these papers soon procured him the rank of 
leading anatomist in England, and after the 
death of Cuvier, of all Europe. Eight of these 
valuable monographs were the product of his 
twenty- seventh year. Directly after them came 
the famous " Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus," 
which established his repute everywhere among 
his peers. Along with this manifold and severe 
work, he was performing the herculean task of 
cataloguing the Hunterian Collections, compris- 
ing 3970 specimens, all requiring careful ex- 
amination and description. The completed lists 
filled five octavo volumes. They were the fruit 



172 



THE 



[March 16, 



of stupendous labor, but it had afforded their 
compiler a liberal education in his special de- 
partment. 

It is impossible to speak in detail of Owen's 
achievements. They may be summed up in a 
passage from Professor Huxley : 

" During more than half a century Owen's industry 
continued unabated; and whether we consider the quan- 
tity, or the quality, of the work done, or the wide range 
of his labors, I doubt if, in the long annals of anatomy, 
more is to be placed to the credit of any single worker." 

Among the men of letters who were drawn 
to the great master of science, Carlyle was con- 
spicuous, himself requesting an interview with 
" the tall man with glittering eyes " who had 
excited his interest. Visits were exchanged 
between them, after which Owen said to his 
wife : "I have such a dread of the personality 
of an author destroying in great measure his 
ideality, that I am pleased to find in this case 
that it is not so, and that Carlyle proved to be, 
as far as 1 am concerned, much what one could 
wish." Carlyle described Owen as that rare 
thing among men, " neither a fool nor a hum- 
bug." Mrs. Owen jotted down in her journal, 
after one of Carlyle's interesting visits : 

" It is curious how like his books Carlyle's conversa- 
tion is. He grew very eloquent when telling us of the 
way in which he is plagued by people who would insist 
upon sending him their books. Young ladies especially 
often wanted his opinion on their poetry. ' I hate po- 
etry,' he said comically. I asked him if he hated 
Home's ' Orion.' Ah,' he said, ' Home's a clever man.' " 

Leave should not be taken of the eminent 
anatomist without giving one example of his 
remarkable power of re-creating an entire ani- 
mal structure from a small given fact. The 
fragment of a thigh-bone, unearthed in New 
Zealand, was brought him by a sailor one day. 
It belonged to no existing creature, and its like 
Owen had never seen. After a brief inspection 
he drew the entire femur, and built upon it a 
gigantic wingless bird, which at full size would 
exceed the ostrich, reaching a stature of sixteen 
feet. The description he presented to the 
Zoological Society excited intense surprise and 
incredulity. It was with difficulty that Owen 
secured the admission of his monograph in the 
Proceedings of the Society. He waited with 
eagerness further discoveries of the skeleton of 
Zhnornis, as he named the huge bird. When 
in the course of years, bones composing the en- 
tire frame of the avian were found and for- 
warded to him, they conformed exactly with 
the structure he had prefigured. 

In 1856, through the generous services of 
Macaulay, Professor Owen was appointed Su- 



perintendent of the Departments of Natural 
History in the British Museum. To his per- 
sistent efforts in organizing and furthering the 
plan, England owes the establishment of the 
superb institution at South Kensington, which 
houses the crowded and neglected collections 
formerly under the roof of the British Museum. 
With the completion of this enterprise in the 
year 1883, the work of the great anatomist was 
practically done. The Queen had generously 
furnished him a home in one of the houses per- 
taining to the crown Sheen Lodge, Richmond 
Park, which his family are permitted still to 
occupy. He had declined the honor of knight- 
hood offered by Sir Robert Peel in 1845, but 
accepted it on a second presentation in his old 
age. Honors had fallen thick upon him dur- 
ing his long and distinguished career, and gen- 
tle, peaceful memories sweetened his declining 
years. His passing was with the last days of 
1892, and like one gliding into dreamless sleep. 
Appended to his biography is a comprehen- 
sive and discriminating survey of " Owen's Po- 
sition in the History of Anatomical Science," 
by Professor Huxley. A number of portraits 
and illustrations enrich the work, which is com- 
pleted by a bibliography of the scientific pa- 
pers published by Professor Owen, covering 
fifty pages, a list of the honorary distinctions 
conferred upon him, numbering nearly a hun- 
dred, and an index. 

The life of Dean Buckland carries us back 
to the early part of our century and the begin- 
ning of the acquisitions of modern science. 
He was one of the fathers of geology, who laid 
the foundations of that domain of knowledge, 
along with such intellectual giants as Sedgwick, 
Murchison, and Lyell. Dr. Buckland had the 
advantage of a training in natural history from 
his boyhood, his father, the Rev. Charles Buck- 
land of Devon, carefully directing his atten- 
tion, in their daily walks, to the fossils which 
abounded in the lias rocks underlying the soil 
of his native section of the southern sea coast. 
The rocks " stared rne in the face," he declared 
years after ; " they wooed me, and caressed me, 
saying at every turn, ' Pray be a geologist ! ' 
He could not resist the appeal, especially as his 
inborn proclivities, stimulated by a parent's 
enthusiasm, moved him to the study of the 
earth's antiquity as recorded in libraries of 
mineral and stone. 

At Oxford, which he entered in 1801, the 
same influences were about him, and in his 
early residence he took his first lesson in field 



1895.] 



THE DIAL 



173 



geology, iu a walk to Shotover Hill. The 
stones he brought back from that day's excur- 
sion formed the nucleus of a collection that 
grew, through forty years, into the largest and 
most valuable private store of the kind in Eu- 
rope. The youth took his university degree 
with honors in 1804, and five years after was 
elected a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. 
The same year he was admitted into Holy Or- 
ders. Geology was not then admitted into the 
curriculum at the University, nor recognized 
by many of the grave an